San Francisco Giants End Unwanted 19-Year Cuban Trend, Sign $42 Million Star Slugger

The history of the San Francisco Giants is littered with players from Latin America. They were one of the first to create a talent pipeline in the Dominican Republic. While the franchise has had numerous Latin players, recently there was one nationality that seemed missing from their roster. For 19 years, the Bay Bombers have been looking for a Cuban player and they’ve finally found one in Jorge Soler. 

Soler’s entry into the Bay Bombers has filled a lot of gaps. He not only brings a much-needed heavy slugging but is also bringing a new Cuban face to the franchise. With such a rich history of Latin players in this organization, it’ll be interesting to see what the next chapter Soler will write in this story. 

How Jorge Soler adds to the history of the San Francisco Giants 

When it was revealed that Jorge Soler had signed a  3-year deal with the Giants, fans were relieved. After months of waiting, their team had finally signed a big star. However, MLB reporter Francys Romero shared interesting information – Soler is the first Cuban player in the Giants after a long 19-year waiting period. 

The last time a Cuban player played in the Giants was in 2005 when Outfielder Alex Sanchez was signed by the Giants. That union didn’t bear much fruit as Sanchez got injured after playing just 19 games. Eventually, the team found it better to release Sanchez than reinstate him into the playing squad. It has been a long wait ever since. 

While this 19-year wait has been long, historically the Giants have always had a presence in Cuba. Legends like Toti Fuentes and Jose Cardenal started their careers MLB careers with the Bay Bombers. While Fuentes ended up spending the majority of his career in the Giants, Cardenal followed a different trajectory. Eventually, Cardenal won 3 World Series as the first base coach of the New York Yankees in 1996,1998,1999). 

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With such legends preceding him, Soler certainly has a lot to live up to. Luckily, this former World Series MVP has the tools to excel under this pressure.

El Crudo looks to conquer the Bay Area

Soler is one of the few modern players who can call himself a two-time World Series champion. He won it once with the Chicago Cubs in 2016 and then with the Atlanta Braves in 2021. The slugger ended up becoming the MVP in the latter win. So it’s interesting that despite all of these achievements, he’s had his first All-Star season in 2023. This could mean that the soon-to-be 32-year-old has a lot of gas in his tank. 

Last season, Soler hit 36 homers. No player has crossed the 30-home run mark for the Giants since Barry Bonds did in 2004. After ending a 19-year-old wait, could El Crudo now go for the 20-year streak? That’d be quite a way to enter the Bay Area.

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