Jorge Soler Exits Game with Hamstring Injury (UPDATE: Video, If You Missed It)

June 6, 2016, by Brett Taylor Chicago Cubs

After his second hit of the night – and after a fantastic catch in left field earlier in the game – Jorge Soler departed upon reaching first base. He was replaced by Matt Szczur, and appeared to have a leg issue.

The Cubs later confirmed only that Soler was “under evaluation for a left hamstring injury.”

You’ll recall that Soler dealt with hamstring issues earlier in his minor league career, and also missed time last season with an ankle injury and an oblique injury. It’s very unfortunate for a player who has needed this time in the big leagues as much for development as for anything else.

Soler, 24, had been extremely hot over the past month, and was even starting to look passable or better in left field. The timing of this injury is terrible to say the least.

We’ll see what the word is tomorrow before we get too deep into the ramifications, but it’s an extremely rare hamstring injury that costs a player anything less than three weeks. Hopefully this is a very minor issue, but we’ll see.

In the meantime, Matt Szczur will fill in tonight, and the Cubs will go from there, depending on the extent of Soler’s injury.

UPDATE: You can see video of the play here, if you missed it live. As Soler started to accelerate into first base and take the turn to go for two, it looks like that’s when he felt something. I don’t want to speculate from there, beyond the Cubs’ announcement that it was a left hamstring issue.