Interesting. I doubt there's any action in the next week, with league focus on the draft. I'll be curious if he's paraded around like Cespedes was, considering he's not MLB ready.

I think it'll take a lot of money, seeing as though there are many teams out there that are wishing they could spend more this week.

Solar will be a Cubs, I think Theo desprately needs this to happen, to show hope for the Cubs future.

The Chico

It's about time , and if past rumors had any merit he should be a Cub shortly.

Finally, hopefully we are still in top pursuit.

Adding Soler and having 4 picks early in the draft, could be a turning point for this franchise.

yeah, if there's anything to all the past whispers, he's practically a Cub already, he just couldn't "officially" sign on the dotted line.

Most definately. Would also put an exclamation point on any percieved "culture change", that should quiet a lot of critics. I don't want to get my hopes up just to be let down, but I have a feeling we are going to go all out on this one.---Fingers crossed!

11:52am: Ben Badler of Baseball America reports that Soler's agent, Bart Hernandez of the Praver Shapiro Sports Management group, still must produce a) an unblocking license from the Office of Foreign Asset Control, or b) two permanent residency documents from a new country before any contract can be finalized.

He should have b by now being in the DR for as long as he a has, no idea what a is though but I would hope that is something his agent would know and already has that figured out

I could be wrong but I believe I previously read that if they signed him to a contract previous to the draft the "old rules" apply - meaning he could sign with any team for a large sum. If not, Soler needs to be fit into the "new rules ceiling".

The deadline is July 2nd, not the draft for the new rules to take into effect. So he has 1 month to sign with a team or he will potentially lose out on 17-30 million dollars

Thanks for the clarification Jerm.. now we all know why this happened now :)

I was honestly worried that Bud was trying to hold him back(maybe he was and failed) so he would be forced to play under the new rules. Thankful he was declared now because it gives us a huge advantage

The issue had/has nothing to do with Selig.

The government doesn't take too kindly to refugees arriving in the country, then mysteriously disappearing and trying to set up residency in another country, only to try to immediately gain a work visa for the US. These guys don't/shouldn't jump to the front of the line just because they play baseball.

"These guys don't/shouldn't jump to the front of the line just because they play baseball."

But traditionally they have. This has been going on for a long time and the government has been super lenient and got things done for MLB as they have kept a good working relationship. Now there has been ton of issues lately with birth days not being right and people changing identity which I'm sure has something to do with it. But at the same time Cespedes, who did the exact same thing, didn't have near the same issues

Why are kids in the USA subject to the MLB draft but players from foreign countries are free agents? This doesn't happen in the NBA or NHL.

There will be an international draft probably starting in 2014.

you're making an assumption that the Cespedes and Soler situations are the same. When it comes to foreign residency documentation, 2 situations are rarely the same.

Source indicates that Jorge Soler's agent, Barry Praver, has requested that offers for his client be submitted by Thursday, June 7.

the problem was with the US treasury department. With Cespedes he was allowed to start talking to teams and negotiating before the US treasury gave the ok, just couldn't finalize the contract. Soler had to wait.

The only major difference between the two was age, Cespedes would have been old enough that no matter what the new rules wouldn't apply, Soler however was different.