Jorge Soler returns to action for Chicago Cubs

Chicago Cubs outfield prospect Jorge Soler came back from the disabled list yesterday in fine fashion, hitting a home run for Double-A Tennessee in their 9-1 victory over Birmingham. He's missed most of the season with multiple bouts of hamstring trouble but appears fully healed at this point. In between injuries, he's hitting .365/.450/.673 in 15 games split between Tennessee and rehab work down in the Arizona Rookie League. Twelve of his 19 hits have gone for extra bases so far.

Interestingly enough, I spoke with a respected veteran scout last week who saw a lot of Soler and the other hot Cubs prospects last fall and again this spring. He didn't seem to think that Soler was quite as good as his numbers, preferring Kris Bryant ("a monster") to a great extent. He said he liked Soler's power but thought he would need to make significant adjustments to his approach once he faced advanced pitching, if he wanted to keep his batting average and OPB anywhere close to where they currently are. He was also concerned that injuries may be a chronic issue.

Soler has been an outstanding this year when healthy so it will be interesting to see how that pans out. I also asked about Javier Baez and got a non-committal response.