Royals and AL HR champion Jorge Soler sign one-year deal to avoid arbitration
The Kansas City Royals have largely avoided salary arbitration under general manager Dayton Moore and that trend continued with slugger Jorge Soler.
The reigning American League home run champion and the club reached a one year contract agreement Friday. Soler will make $7.3 million in base salary for 2020 with performance bonuses of $50,000 if he makes the All-Star Game and $100,000 if he wins the Hank Aaron Award, according to a source.
Soler, an outfielder/designated hitter, hit a single-season franchise-record 48 home runs in 2019 during which he made a base salary of $4 million. He surpassed Mike Moustakas’ previous club record of 38 homers and also set a record for most homers in a season by a Cuban-born player.
Soler originally signed with the Chicago Cubs prior to being acquired by the Royals via trade following the 2016 season. While he remains under team control through 2021, that contract allowed him the flexibility to pursue arbitration in 2020 and 2021 before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2022.
Moore previously expressed interest in signing Soler to a multi-year deal, and that remains a possibility in the future.
“That’s something that could happen at some point in time,” Moore said. “We wouldn’t close the door to that potential opportunity. We all felt that the logical progression would be to do a one-year deal, initially, and then evaluate a multi-year type deal at a later point in time.”
Along with his 48 home runs — the third-highest total in MLB last season — Soler set career highs in games played (162), RBIs (117), walks (73), runs scored (95), doubles (33) and on-base percentage (.354)
His 117 RBIs were the seventh-most in a single season in club history. He ranked fourth in the AL in extra-base hits, fifth in slugging percentage and seventh in OPS (.922). His OPS ranked as the highest by a Royals player since Mike Sweeney (.979) in 2002.
Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi, infielder/outfielder Hunter Dozier and starting pitcher Brad Keller are among the arbitration-eligible players in 2021. Moore said upcoming arbitration situations won’t add any pressure to lock Soler up for multiple years.
“I wouldn’t say there’s urgency with regard to it because you never want to force a deal,” Moore said. “You want things to just kind of naturally unfold at a pace where everybody is comfortable and satisfied with the process. I don’t necessarily feel an urgency to it.
“As I’ve said before, it’s always been our desire to keep as many of our talented young players here as long as possible. We’ve had success doing that in the past. We’ll be open-minded and do all we can to secure deals that make sense for the team and the player.”
The website MLB Trade Rumors projected Soler’s salary to rise to $11.2 million in 2020.
That seemed a lofty target considering Soler’s breakout season in 2019 followed more than four seasons in the majors largely marred by injuries. He’d played in 100 games or more just once (2015) before last season, and he hadn’t hit more than 12 home runs in a season.
Earlier this winter, the club also signed pitcher Mike Montgomery to a one-year contract to avoid arbitration.
When asked about the status of outfielder Alex Gordon, who shares an agent with Soler, Moore said he expects those talks to “intensify” with Soler’s deal done.
Gordon remains a free agent though the Royals clearly want to bring him back for a 14th season, and Gordon has stated he doesn’t want to play for another franchise.
Deadline dealings
The Royals have gone beyond the deadline multiple times during Moore’s tenure before reaching deals without an arbitration hearing.
They exchanged figures with pitcher Kelvin Herrera and star first baseman Eric Hosmer before the 2017 season, but the club ultimately reached agreements on contracts before participating in an arbitration hearing.
Hosmer and the Royals were within days of a hearing in 2015 when Hosmer signed a two-year deal that paid him $13.9 million for 2015-16.
The only case to go through the full arbitration process between the Royals and a player during Moore’s tenure came in 2018, when pitcher Brandon Maurer filed for a $3.5 million salary and the Royals ultimately won the hearing and Maurer made $2.95 million.
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 4:59 PM.
