Kansas City Royals: Storylines to follow in 2019 offseason

EXTENDING SOLER

One of the few bright spots on the team this year was a HUGE bright spot and that was the power of Jorge Soler at the plate. Soler was the American League home run leader with 48 bombs, the first Royal to ever hold that title.

Needless to say, Soler is a huge part of the team moving forward, and considering he’ll turn 28 years old in February, the Royals would be foolish not to offer him some sort of extension.

https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1178014187265675265

Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors wrote a nice in-depth piece on the Royals potentially offering Soler an extension and had this to say,

"Depending on how Soler’s arbitration seasons are valued, Grichuk’s five-year, $52MM contract could be a particularly relevant comparison. The roughly $13MM annual rate at which Grichuk’s free-agent seasons were valued in his extension could also be a point of reference Soler’s camp seeks to top; doing so would put him in Cruz territory for the average annual value of his free-agent seasons. I’d imagine Soler would do a bit better than Grichuk in terms of overall guarantee, but something in that general vicinity seems like a plausible landing point for the burgeoning slugger."

Yes, the Royals are looking to rebuild, but it’d be idiotic not to lock Soler up for the next several years. Having a guy who can hit bombs is critical and something this organization didn’t have for a long time.

Even with Soler not producing much in his first two years (due to injury mostly in 2018), he showed what he can do when healthy and that needs to be rewarded. Soler will hit free agency at his age 30 season and another team wouldn’t hesitate to snatch him up, so the Royals need to act on this over the offseason.