Cubs, Soler expected to agree to deal

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The Cubs are not only the frontrunners for Jorge Soler, it now appears they have come to an agreement with the 19-year-old Cuban outfielder and are expected to sign him when his pending free agency becomes official.

Dave van Dyck of the Chicago Tribune cites reports out of the Dominican Republic, where Soler is currently staying after defecting from Cuba.

Paperwork is holding Soler's free agent status up, as the outfielder is still waiting for clearance from the MLB.

Yoenis Cespedes, the top Cuban prize this offseason, signed with the Oakland Athletics earlier on Monday. The Cubs inked Gerardo Concepcion, the consensus No. 3 ranked Cuban prospect of the offseason, to a deal a week-and-a-half ago.

Soler's deal is for a reported 27.5 million for three or four years.

That is very curious considering he is likely a couple years away from having an impact on the MLB team. Cespedes' deal was worth just 36 million over four years, and he's 26 and should be ready to be an everyday player for the A's big league club by midseason.

Obviously, nothing is set in stone with Soler until pen actually hits paper. There's no telling exactly how long the clearance will take from the league, but it should only be a matter of days.

BaseballProspectus' Kevin Goldstein weighed in on the matter on Twitter Monday night:

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Kevin GoldsteinFolks, the four year deal for Soler is DIFFERENT from the Cespedes deal. Service time won't start until big leagues, NOT a FA after the 4.
Feb 14 via TweetDeckFavoriteRetweetReply

Which means since he will have to spend a significantly longer time in the minors, Soler won't become a free agent at the end of four years like Cespedes will.

Goldstein also said if the reports are true, Soler would become the new No. 1 prospect in the Cubs organization.

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