Not that it was unexpected after he left a game last week in obvious, hamstring-related discomfort …
Jorge Soler is going to miss some time after straining his right hamstring making a running catch at AA Tennessee. That catch came just about a week after Soler had returned from the disabled list with, yup, a strained hamstring. And before that strained hamstring, which occurred in his first at bat of the season? Soler strained his hamstring in Spring Training.
Carrie Muskat reports that Soler will head to Arizona to rehab once again, before eventually coming back to Tennessee. We don’t have a timeline on the rehab, or word on just how serious the strain is yet, but we know that he was sent to Chicago for tests this past weekend, even as his manager appeared optimistic that Soler might return this week. That struck me at the time as unrealistic – not that I know anything – and it looks like it was.
Each of the last two strains cost Soler about a month, and it would be unreasonable to assume this one will be any less costly. Given that it’s his third strain in a few months, it’s possible that his rehab will be even more conservative this time around. We’ll see if/when he starts appearing in games in extended Spring Training, which will probably mark him being about a week to ten days out from returning to AA.
Whatever the case, I wouldn’t expect to see him back at Tennessee until well until June, which is pretty darn unfortunate, especially given how well he was playing. Hopefully the Cubs were able to get to the root of the issue, and will be able to put protocols in place that will keep Soler healthy going forward (at least as well as an organization can, anyway). He missed half of the 2013 season with a stress fracture in his leg (any relationship with the future hammy injuries? We may never know), and didn’t play much organized ball the two years before that during the defection process. In short, these injuries suck for this guy.
Technically, Soler has not yet been placed on the DL at AA, but that should come as soon as there’s a corresponding move lined up.