Kansas City Royals: Jorge Soler’s power numbers are legitimate

For the first time, the Kansas City Royals had a player hit 40 home runs in a season in 2019 when Jorge Sole smashed 48. 

In 2019, Jorge Soler set the home run record for the Kansas City Royals with 48, becoming the only player in franchise history to hit 40 or more in a season. It was cause for celebration just two earlier when Mike Moustakas hit 38, breaking the decades-old record by two, so it was quite the feat that Soler shattered that record by ten dingers.

Soler immediately became the great slugger in the history of the Royals, at least for a single season. The question now becomes whether or not he can continue to hit for power, or was his record just a juiced ball outlier?

When the Cubs signed Soler at the age of 20 in 2012, he was expected to develop some good power at the major league level. Early on in his career with Chicago, he showed some strong power tendencies, logging an Isolated Power mark of .281 in a small sample size in 2014.

In 404 Plate Appearances in 2015, he fell back to a league average ISO of .137, according to Fangraphs.com, then he bounced back up to .198 the next year.

As a Royal, he struggled along with an ISO of just .113 in 2017, and then he began to emerge as a real power threat in 2018, with an ISO of .202 before he went down to a season-ending foot injury in late June.

Then came 2019. Soler’s power exploded, earning him an ISO of .304, which was good enough to rank sixth in the majors. Not only did Soler hit 48 round-trippers, but he also pounded out a career-high in doubles with 33. So, can Soler do it again?