3 reasons why the KC Royals keep playing Jorge Soler

Sunday’s change to the KC Royals’ batting order was impossible to miss. To call the alteration conspicuous may not do it justice.

Jorge Soler, the part-time designated hitter, part-time outfielder whose 48 home runs smashed the team’s long-standing single-season record just two years ago, found his name in the seventh slot for the club’s game against Detroit. Manager Mike Matheny even penciled Ryan O’Hearn, dragging a .188 average into the game, above him.

As improbable as Soler’s tumble down the order might be in a vacuum, the reality of his performance explains it. Soler just can’t hit this season. Sunday’s 0-for-3 effort dropped his average to .182, and his .263 OBP proves the depth of his struggle to reach base, much less hit the home runs he’s paid to hit.

Although he’d occupied only the prime fourth and fifth lineup spots before Sunday, dropping him to seventh made even more sense considering his 1-for-18 slump entering the day. Add the facts he has only four homers so far, exactly 25 percent of his RBIs came in one game, and his 31 percent strikeout rate, and hitting him seventh in the lineup makes perfect sense.

If Jorge Soler is hitting so badly, why do the KC Royals continue to play him?

So, why have the Royals, struggling and scuffling to work themselves back into American League Central Division relevance, tolerated his quiet bat all season?

Power is the main reason. The notion of coveting that commodity always seems a bit strange for a franchise that usually ranks speed, the ability to get on base, and hitting the spacious Kauffman Stadium gaps above power. Having a big bopper is nice (think John Mayberry, Steve Balboni, and even Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew for his final big league season), but has never been truly essential in Kansas City.

Soler’s brand of power, though, is hard to resist, and those 48 homers he hit in 2019 seem to have hooked the Royals. But the truth is this: 2019 remains the only season Soler has hit more than 12 homers, and the only campaign he’s managed more than nine since KC traded away Wade Davis to get him.

Are there other reasons Kansas City sticks with Soler?

Is Jorge Soler’s present value a reason the KC Royals keep playing him?

There probably aren’t many people, including Royals fans, who truly believe Jorge Soler will return to Kansas City next season. Bringing him back doesn’t seem something General Manager Dayton Moore and principal owner John Sherman will place high on their list of 2022 priorities, especially in light of his performance so far this season and the stable of talented young hitters advancing through the organization.

And Soler will surely test the free agent market this fall and winter—after all, he’ll be eligible to shop his services for the first time since becoming a major leaguer, and seeking out a multi-year deal worth more than the $8.05 million he’s being paid this season will be hard for him to resist.

But the Royals probably won’t, and probably shouldn’t, pursue him. No one doubts Kansas City wanted his power most when they sacrificed Wade Davis to get him in the winter of 2016, but subtract the 48 homers he hit in 2019 from his total, and he’s hit just 23 for the Royals. Yes, he’s suffered his share of injuries, but 23 is 23.

Some might say Soler’s .329 overall OBP since becoming a Royal proves he does more than bash baseballs out of ballparks. But .329 is fairly commonplace and in his case encompasses inconsistency—although he posted back-to-back .354’s in 2018 and 2019, and a .326 last season, his OBP was .245 in 2017 and is .263 this year.

So, why doesn’t Moore trade him? The timing, always a key ingredient of successful trades, simply isn’t right. Soler’s miserable season diminishes his trade value. What the KC Royals could get for him today might not be worth it.

Playing his way out of this prolonged slump, though, will increases his value; playing well after that will push it even higher. That’s one reason Moore doesn’t cast him adrift. He wants Soler’s value as high as it can be when the July 30 trade deadline gets close.

And in the meantime, an improved Soler will help the Royals.