Chicago Cubs prospect Jorge Soler may have a slight anger management issue to deal with before he makes his way to the Big Leagues. Soler plays for the team’s Class-A affiliate, the Daytona Cubs. On Wednesday night, Daytona lost 14-9 to the Clearwater Thresers in extra innings, but the thrill of extra frames took a backseat to the commotion Soler caused with his outburst in the seventh inning.
According to The Daytona Beach News-Journal (via the Chicago Tribune), the 21-year-old outfielder charged toward the Threshers’ dugout with a bat in his hand following the seventh. Prior to that, Soler had been involved in a confrontation with Clearwater’s Edgar Alonso after Soler slid into second base. The two reportedly exchanged words and had to be separated by teammates, but Soler apparently never cooled down and went after Alonso wielding a bat. Daytona manager Dave Keller said it was “kind of like a nightmare.”
“I think that he was frustrated by some things and there was some emotional things he was fighting with,” Keller said. “Why he did that, I don’t know. I think he was frustrated by what happened. When he slid into second base, (Alonso) ended up laying on top of him. He was laying on him so (Soler) pushed with his arm to get him off him, and I think the second baseman interpreted that the wrong way like he wanted to fight or something.”
Keller went on to describe the scene, which sounded like something straight out of Hollywood.
“There were two separate incidents, and there was really no fight,” he said. “But because nobody was around him when he was running across the field with a bat … that makes things a little bit crazy.”
Baseball fights like this and bench-clearing brawls like this are all part of the game, but running after someone with a bat takes things to a dangerous level. There’s no telling if Soler was actually going to to something with the bat, but the league has to assume he planned on using it as a weapon when deciding his punishment.
