Geidys Soler

Geidys Soler Hinojosa
also listed as Geidy and Geidis

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 183 lb.

• Born 1982 in Holguín, Holguín Cuba

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Geidys Soler has played in Cuba and Russia and for the Russian national team.

Soler debuted for Holguín in the 2004-2005 Serie Nacional, going 2 for 13. After not playing in the Serie Nacional the next year, he hit .287/.333/.416 in 2006-2007 in 37 games. His playing time and production plummeted in 2007-2008 (2 for 25, 2B, BB). He next surfaced in the Serie Nacional in 2010-2011 and hit .315/.367/.534 in 29 games.

That earned him a regular look in 2011-2012, when he produced at a .275/.342/.432 clip, fielding .899 as the main left fielder for Holguín. In 2012-2013, he batted .336/.372/.479 and improved his fielding to .953. He struck out 46 times to tie Yasmani Tomás for 5th in the league. Had he qualified, he would have been 5th in average, between Ariel Sánchez and Andrés Reyna. In 2013-2014, he fell off a bit to .256/.322/.376 while splitting time between left and right.

Geidys's batting line in 2014-2015 was .262/.333/.463. During 2015-2016, he hit .237/.312/.356 and was hit by 15 pitches, tying Osvaldo Vázquez for the league lead. He batted .313/.385/.444 in 2016-2017. He opened 2017-2018 by batting .302/.371/.472 in 42 games in the first half; when Holguín did not qualify for the second half, he was picked up by Granma and hit .267/.321/.416 for them. He fell to .222/.263/.250 in the postseason but they won the title.

His last season in Cuba, the veteran showed he still could hit, at .323/.364/.498 with 59 runs, 16 doubles, 13 homers and 58 RBI in 83 games in 2018-2019. He was 9th with 162 total bases (between Wilfredo Aroche and Yunier Mendoza). He was one of several Cubans to then play in the Russian League and obtain Russian citizenship. Starting in right field for Russia in the 2019 B-Level European Championship, he hit .364/.462/.727 with 7 runs, 2 homers, 4 RBI and 3 steals (in 4 tries) in 5 games, handling 11 putouts without an error. He was 10th in the event in average, 8th in slugging (between Max Warren and Frank Bulte), tied for 4th in doubles (2), tied for 2nd in homers (4 behind teammate and fellow Cuban David Castillo), tied Mitch Glasser and Simon Rosenbaum for 5th in total bases and tied for 2nd in steals (one behind Assaf Lowengart). Russia lost out to Israel in the finals.

Soler was at least 38 years old by the 2021 European Championship Qualifiers; Maxim Monakhov was Russia's next-oldest player at 36. He did not show his age, homering in all four of Russia's games. He was 4 for 5 with two homers, four runs and seven RBI against Switzerland, homered twice and drove in seven versus Belarus and finished at .688/.688/1.813 with 6 dingers, 8 runs and 18 RBI as Russia won for a spot in the 2021 European Championship. Among all four qualifiers, he tied Bulte for 5th in runs, led in hits (2 ahead of Tom Roulis), easily led in homers (next were teammates Alexander Bolgov, Yunior Valiente and Yan Pérez at 3), led in RBI (5 ahead of Bolgov), led in total bases (29, 12 ahead of Valiente), led in average (.088 ahead of Dimitar Nassapov), led in slugging (.613 ahead of Nassapov), was 2nd in OBP (.004 behind Nassapov) and obviously led in OPS. Despite that, he was not named the MVP as it went to Valiente.

In the 2021 European Championship, he was Russia's right fielder and batted third. He grounded out against Israel's Joey Wagman his first at-bat but doubled off Wagman the next time to drive in Castillo with Russia's only run in a 2-1 loss. He drove in four the next day in a 7-6 win over Great Britain and had 3 runs and 3 RBI versus Austria (taking Brian Fürböck deep). He finished the Euros with a .364/.481/.591 batting line, 6 runs and 9 RBI in 6 games and had 7 putouts, 3 assists and no errors in strong defense in right. He tied Valiente for second on Russia in runs (one behind Castillo), was second in hits (8, two behind Castillo), tied Castillo and Valiente for the team double lead, tied three players for the team homer lead, led the team in RBI (3 ahead of Viacheslav Vasilev), was 2nd on the team in total bases (13, one behind Castillo), was second on Russia in walks (one behind Monakhov) and was second to Castillo among their regulars in average, slugging, OBP and OPS. For the 2021 Euros as a whole, he tied Dashenko Ricardo and Dario Pizzano for 8th in RBI.