Kansas City Royals: Jorge Soler should do Home Run Derby next year

Jorge Soler’s impressive 2019 season with the Kansas City Royals should make him a strong candidate to participate in the Home Run Derby next year.

112.7 mph. That was the exit velocity on Jorge Soler‘s moonshot home run on Thursday in the series finale against the White Sox. The Kansas City Royals managed to take two-of-three from their division rivals and have won four straight series. Soler, 27, hit three home runs in the series, including two bombs on Wednesday evening.

Soler has an impressive stat line of 0.257/0.348/0.557 with 44 home runs and 107 RBI’s on the season. He’s taken the league by storm this season with his emphatic home run power and, if asked next season, he should absolutely partake in the Home Run Derby.

This season, Whit Merrifield was the lone representative of the Royals that was sent to the All-Star game held at Progressive Field in Cleveland. In terms of the derby itself, Mike Moustakas was the last Royal to take part in the event in 2017. In 2020, the Mid-Summer Classic moves to Los Angeles where the Dodgers will be hosting for the first time since 1980, who needed to upgrade their stadium to accommodate such an event.

With both corners being just 330 feet deep at Dodger Stadium and 395 feet to dead center, Soler would have a field day with his longest home run this season being 465 feet. If you recall, that home run was hit to the left-field corner at Target Field and landed in the upper deck in early August.

He’s among the league leaders in average exit velocity at 92.6 mph, which falls within the top 3 percent of the league. His 49.9 hard-hit percentage and 17.1 barrel percentage fall within the top 4 and 2 percent of the league, respectively. It’s taken a bit for Soler to develop into his potential, primarily due to the inability to stay healthy.

The 2019 Home Run Derby was one of the most-watched derbies in quite some time, with a combined 6.2 million viewers. Highlighted by the showcasing of Vladimir Guerrero Jr‘s amazing power, it was one of the best derbies that I can recall. Major League Baseball would be doing itself a disservice omitting Soler from consideration next year.