Jorge

Soler

The 34-year-old slugger served his time from brawling with Braves’ right-hander Reynaldo López last week. He returns to a .231/.342/.508 slash line with five homers and 18 RBI in 79 plate appearances through his first 18 ballgames. Fantasy managers have to be thrilled with the power production that he has provided to start the season.

And so ends the Soler suspension drama. The 34-year-old was suspended for seven games last Wednesday, but appealed the suspension and continued playing. While fantasy managers waited to see when the suspension would be official, Soler went 6-for-29 with three home runs, eight RBI, and six runs scored. Soler can return on Sunday against the Padres, but get him out of your lineups now if you can.

Soler doubled in the third inning and came around to score on an RBI single by Yoán Moncada, but the veteran righty did his most damage in the eighth inning when he hit a grand slam off reliever Sam Moll to push the Angels’ lead to 10-1. It was the fourth homer of the season for Soler, who pushed his RBI total to 15 on the young season and is currently riding a six-game hitting streak and three-game home run streak.

After making headlines for the wrong reasons on Tuesday night, Soler came to the plate in the second inning and blasted his third home run of the season. A looming suspension is set to kill the momentum he’s built up so far with three home runs and 11 RBI, which are tied for the eighth-most in the league to this point.

Both are appealing, which means that Soler remains in the Angels lineup until after the hearing takes place. The two traded punches in front of the mound during the fifth inning of Tuesday’s game in Los Angeles after López threw up-and-in on Soler, who was hit by a pitch in his previous at-bat following a first-inning homer. The two were previously teammates in Atlanta back in 2024.

Soler and López traded punches during a chaotic donnybrook that erupted during the fifth inning at Angel Stadium after a high-and-inside pitch. Soler clobbered a two-run homer off López back in the opening frame before being drilled hit by a pitch his next time up. Amazingly, it was Braves manager Walt Weiss who delivered a textbook tackle to bring Soler to the ground and help break up the brawl while Mike Trout managed to corral López, who somehow held onto the baseball throughout the entire incident. There will undoubtedly be suspensions handed out by the league after one of the wildest on-field melees in recent years.

Soler was responsible for three of the Angels’ eight walks. He also was responsible for one of the three homers with a two-run shot off Cristian Javier. The 2025 season was a disaster for Soler, but he’s not long removed from being one of the better power threats in baseball. It’s feasible he posts similiar results in 2026, but it’s more than understandable why fantasy managers would take a wait-and-see approach.

Soler is batting .361/.452/.750 in 43 plate appearances, and it looks like he’ll open the season in the cleanup spot ahead of Yoán Moncada, who seemed in line to bat fourth at the beginning of the spring. He could be helpful in shallow leagues initially, particularly for teams looking for power over batting average.

It’s tempting to write off Soler after he hit just .215 over 82 games last season, but with Mike Trout returning to the outfield, Soler can DH regularly, which should help him avoid problems like year’s back woes, and rack up plenty of at-bats as the Angels’ No. 4 or 5 hitter. In his career, Soler’s OPS is about 70 points higher when he DHs than when he’s in the outfield.

Soler went deep for the first time this spring, sending a line-drive out to left field in this one. The 34-year-old veteran masher was limited to just 82 games during his Angels debut last season because of persistent back issues. He’s one of the stronger bets to reach the 20-homer mark in a full season but he doesn’t offer much else from a fantasy production standpoint at this stage of his career.