PHILADELPHIA – Cubs manager Joe Maddon said the club isn’t ready to put a timeline on Jorge Soler’s recovery from the hamstring injury that landed him on the disabled list Tuesday.
But that’s not nearly as big a deal, anyway, as how long Soler might be able to avoid the DL going forward in his career — a career that was expected to help sustain a lengthy competitive run when he was signed to a $30 million deal as an amateur free agent in 2012.
The 24-year-old outfielder has just one full season on a big-league roster. But he already has six DL stints in less than three years at three different organizational levels – including three hamstring injuries.
“We’ve been taking care of him, and he really does all the right things,” Maddon said Monday night after Soler suffered his latest injury running to first base. “Hammies – once you do that, it’s kind of a chronic [issue], something that normally does follow.
“So you have to be cautious,” Maddon said. “He’s been doing everything properly, and the training staff has. It just happens. Some people are predisposed.”
On the day Soler debuted in August 2014, team president Theo Epstein made a point to explain the “full-body workup” Soler underwent after a pair of injuries earlier that season, and maintenance plan for keeping him healthy.
But it hasn’t seemed to change the growing perception that the once-prized young outfielder is injury-prone.
Maddon does not accept that perception – despite more than a season of lost time on the DL for Soler in three years.
“Injury prone, that’s an easy thing to say,” Maddon said. “I really refrain from putting labels like that on a player because I’ve seen [turnarounds].
“I’ve seen guys that have gotten hurt early in their career that all of a sudden they stop getting hurt,” Maddon said. “I don’t even know why that is. But I’ve had those guys.”
Soler, who was starting to heat up at the plate after a rough start, has been on the DL for injuries to three different body parts in the last year alone.
“Let’s just get this one well, and see what happens,” Maddon said.
Hamstrung or Snake bitten?
Soler’s six trips to the DL in the last three years:
June 17, 2013 – Left calf strain (missed rest of season at high-A Daytona)
April 4, 2014 – Left hamstring (missed 34 days at Class AA Tennessee)
May 20, 2014 – Right hamstring (48 days at Tennessee)
June 3, 2015 – Left ankle sprain (33 days with Cubs)
Aug. 24, 2015 –Left oblique strain (25 days with Cubs)
Tuesday – Left hamstring (Estimated three weeks or more)