Jorge Soler has been an absolute Bad Dude during his first go-round in the majors. His 176 OPS+ is 8th among post-Integration rookies with 80 or more PA. Let’s look at the 10 best seasons to see what company Soler is in.
1. Willie McCovey – .354/.429/.656, 219 PA
Willie McCovey is a HOF, who played 22 years and put up a 147 OPS+ in that span. McCovey won the ROY award in 1959 though he played only 52 games, and won his only MVP award a decade later. From 1965-1971, McCovey put up the insane slash of .290/.404/.569, with 244 HR.
2. Daric Barton – .347/.429/.639, 84 PA
Barton is a league-average hitter who plays first base for the A’s in very part-time. He has great plate discipline; unfortunately, he makes poor contact and has no power. That isn’t a combination that allows you to stay in the majors.
3. Chris Parmelee – .355/.443/.592, 88 PA
Parmelee’s 2011 OPS+ (183) is better than any of his other 2 seasons combined. Parmelee has a future as perhaps a backup 1B/RF, but he’ll never be much more than that.
4. Mike Jacobs – .310/.375/.710, 112 PA
Jacobs is the proto-Baez, a man with a big bat but contact issues to spare. He crushed the ball in his first season, riding that 2005 to a starting job and ~500 PA for the Marlins for 3 years in a row (he was traded for Carlos Delgado!). He was average with the bat then, but contact issues eventually eroded his playing time, and eventually, his career. Fun fact: Mike Jacobs has 100 career HR!
5. Ken Griffey Sr. – .384/.424/.570, 92 PA
Griffey had a nice career! While his son was much more distinguished, Griffey played for parts of 19 years, with a career OPS+ of 118. He made a few all-star games, garnered the odd MVP vote here or there. Griffey was more of a doubles hitter than a homers hitter, though he never once led the league in any meaningful category.
6. Merv Rettenmund – .297/.452/.469, 85 PA
I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of Merv Rettenmund. I should have; his career was relatively short for someone with his numbers (13 seasons). His career slash: .271/.381/.406. He walked more than he struck out, and swung a pillow, but getting on base is obviously an important trait, doubly so in the dead-ish ball era he played in. He was a part-time player for most of his career.
7. Frank Thomas – .330/.454/.529, 240 PA
Look! Another Hall of Famer! Frank Thomas was SO fucking good. It’s extremely embarrassing that he didn’t win the ROY in 1990 (didn’t receive a vote!), but he took his aggression out on the league over the next 18 years. Thomas represents the absolute best case scenario for a hot start (duh), and hitter like Thomas just don’t come along very often.
8. Jorge Soler – .329/.363/.658, 80 PA
Time will tell.
9. Bill Madlock – .351/.412/.532, 85 PA
I think if you told me Jorge Soler ended up with Bill Madlock’s career, I’d be pretty ecstatic. Madlock hit .305/.365/.442 over 15 seasons, with an OPS+ of 123 for his career. Madlock was consistenly really good – never overly great, though he did lead the league in BA 4 separate times. Soler and Madlock aren’t very comparable; Soler has less patience but more power, and Madlock was a Gwynn-lite in putting the ball in play, not to mention the complete difference in positions. However, Madlock had 7 seasons with an oWAR over 3, including 4 over 5. I’d be happy.
10. Jose Abreu – .316/.382/.582. 605 PA
It’s not a real stretch to say Abreu is having the best offensive rookie season of all time. Sure, Pujols had a 1.013 OPS in 676 PA, and Ichiro won the MVP and ROY in the same year, but that was in a different offensive environment (and Ichiro’s season was overrated). Abreu is just so, so good, it’s hard to imagine what his career would be like had he broke into the league at 21. Jose Abreu is awesome, and if he continues this pace for 10 years, he’d be a hall of famer despite breaking into the league at 27.
There you have it. Definitely some cautionary tales, but also some excellent careers, including one of the 10 best players of the past 25 years. Enjoy Soler while we have him.