{"id":212363,"date":"2026-03-10T00:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/212363\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T00:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:37:10","slug":"angels-jorge-soler-feeling-good-this-spring-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/212363\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels\u2019 Jorge Soler feeling good this spring \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEMPE, Ariz. \u2014 Jorge Soler admitted last year that playing outfield so much was \u201ctough\u201d on his body<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Which is quite a contrast to how he\u2019s been this spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s coming up to me and asking me to play more,\u201d Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. \u201cHe wants another at-bat. He wants to play right field more. That\u2019s a great sign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, the Angels don\u2019t really want Soler to play outfield that much. The ideal alignment for them is to have Josh Lowe, Mike Trout and Jo Adell in the outfield, with Soler at DH.<\/p>\n

Trout will certainly warrant some time at DH, which could push Soler into the outfield. And they need him to do so without suffering the kind of injuries he did last year. Soler dealt with back problems throughout the season.<\/p>\n

Soler said he spent his winter doing more running, and he lost some weight. His improved mobility has been clear, from the first time he scored from first base on a double this spring.<\/p>\n

Soler, who was in right field for Monday\u2019s game, had a 1.029 OPS through his first 22 plate appearances of the spring, with five walks and six strikeouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel really good this year,\u201d Soler said through an interpreter. \u201cLast year I had a really bad year and that was disappointing. But this year, it\u2019s an important year and I feel like I\u2019m more focused and ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soler, 34, hit .215 with 12 home runs and a .680 OPS last season. He played just 82 games, including 40 in the outfield.<\/p>\n

Over the previous three years, Soler had a .791 OPS and he averaged 23 homers.<\/p>\n

Soler, who is a free agent at the end of this season, is going to need a rebound this season if he\u2019s going to get a job next year.<\/p>\n

Some around the Angels believe that Soler is especially motivated by getting his next contract.<\/p>\n

Asked in general if there are players who do better in contract years, Suzuki said it\u2019s natural to have some extra motivation even if it\u2019s not the prevailing driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way the money is out there right now, who wouldn\u2019t be?\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cFor me, I think these guys are professionals and they want to be successful. They\u2019re pros. They want to put forth the best effort they can. Just because a guy has a down year doesn\u2019t mean he doesn\u2019t work hard, you know. This game is a tough game and I think it\u2019s a game of adjustments and when guys struggle a little bit, they work on it, they figure out what they can do better and they go after it.\u201d<\/p>\n

TV DEAL ANNOUNCED<\/p>\n

The Angels announced the completion of their deal with Main Street Sports<\/a> to purchase a portion of the television network that will broadcast their games.<\/p>\n

They will retain the name FanDuel Sports Network West. The Kings will also appear on the network.<\/p>\n

DirectTV, Spectrum and Cox will carry the network, just as they did before. Fans without those providers can purchase streaming packages through Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n

The Angels will begin broadcasting games with the Freeway Series exhibition games against the Dodgers (March 22-24). They will air all the regular-season games except the nationally televised games.<\/p>\n

LOWE UPDATE<\/p>\n

Lowe, who has been out with oblique tightness, took batting practice on Sunday and did some defensive drills on Monday. He has been running.<\/p>\n

Lowe said he \u201cfelt really good\u201d hitting in the cage, and he\u2019s hoping to get some live at-bats by the end of the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s moving in the right direction,\u201d Lowe said.<\/p>\n

Suzuki said he was encouraged by what he saw from Lowe\u2019s batting practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said he was swinging about 90% and I mean he was hitting balls on the Trackman at 108 (mph), 110 (mph),\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cSo I know he was swinging hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOTES<\/p>\n

Jeimer Candelario did some work at second base during morning drills on Monday. \u201cWe\u2019re just seeing what our options are,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cCandy\u2019s been swinging the bat really well. He\u2019s been playing really well.\u201d Candelario has an 1.137 OPS in 28 plate appearances this spring. He\u2019s been playing third and first in games. At those positions, he would be a backup to Yo\u00e1n Moncada and Nolan Schanuel. The Angels haven\u2019t determined who their starting second baseman is, though. \u2026<\/p>\n

Suzuki said that top pitching prospect Tyler Bremner will be getting into a Cactus League game \u201csoon.\u201d Bremner, the Angels\u2019 first-round draft pick last July, has been working on improving his slider before the Angels use him in a major league game. \u201cI know Perry (Minasian) wants him to get into a game,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cJust trying to check all the boxes. Just kind of making sure he\u2019s fully ready before we throw him out there. He hasn\u2019t pitched a professional inning yet, so we got to make sure he\u2019s really ready to go.\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n

Right-handers Robert Stephenson and Nick Sandlin are scheduled to face Angels hitters again in the next couple of days. Each is rehabbing from injuries last year. Neither has pitched in a game yet this spring. \u2026<\/p>\n

Zach Neto was in the No. 3 spot for the Angels\u2019 game on Monday. Suzuki said he\u2019s still experimenting with lineups. Neto was primarily the leadoff hitter last season. \u201cI think this is the time to experiment with stuff and see what works best,\u201d Suzuki said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEMPE, Ariz. \u2014 Jorge Soler admitted last year that playing outfield so much was \u201ctough\u201d on his body.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,2866,1334,127],"class_list":["post-212363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}