Angels To Designate Jorge Soler For Assignment

The Angels have designated outfielder/designated hitter Jorge Soler for assignment. Journalist Mike Rodriguez first broke the news. The team has not yet formally announced the transaction or a corresponding move.

The Halos surely explored ways to try to trade Soler before moving to cut him, but it’s been a brutal year for the former AL home run leader. Soler, now 34 years old, is hitting just .203/.291/.373 on the season. He’s homered a dozen times in 361 plate appearances and struck out nearly one-third of the time he’s stepped into the batter’s box. Soler is typically a formidable presence against left-handed pitching, but he struggled versus southpaws last year and is batting just .207/.284/.341 against them in 2026.

Soler’s results at the plate have declined markedly in recent seasons. After sitting on a walk rate in the 11-12% range for most of his career, he’s now dipped below 10% in consecutive seasons. His strikeout troubles abated a bit in his early 30s, but this year’s 32.7% clip is his highest since the shortened 2020 season. He’s still swinging hard, but his contact rate has tanked, and when he does make contact, he’s not hitting the ball with the same authority he did even two or three years ago. “When he does make contact” is a notable caveat, too; Soler has the third-worst overall contact rate in baseball (65.7%) among players with 300 plate appearances.

Soler is being paid $13MM this year in the final season of a three-year, $42MM contract originally signed with San Francisco. The Giants traded him to the Braves at the 2024 deadline, and Soler has since bounced back to the Braves and now to the Angels, where’s he’s spent the past season-plus.

With the trade deadline behind us, the Angels won’t have any choice but to place Soler on waivers. No one is going to claim the roughly $3.91MM that’s left on his contract. He’s a lock to clear waivers, at which point he’ll be released and look for good landing spots elsewhere in the league — presumably on a minor league pact.