The San Diego Padres and infielder/outfielder Nick Solak have reconnected on a new minor league contract, just days after Solak hit free agency. It’s the kind of move that barely registers on the transaction wire, but there’s a little more to it for a guy who’s been tearing it up at Triple-A.
Solak, 31, is headed back to El Paso, where he’s putting up numbers that would make anyone blink. In 54 games with the Chihuahuas this season, he’s slashing .333/.412/.512 with nine homers and 40 RBIs. That’s not just good for the Pacific Coast League. That’s good, period.
How he ended up back in San Diego
Here’s the sequence. Solak got called up to the big leagues on June 13 when Miguel Andujar went on the injured list with a hamstring strain. He played four games, went 1-for-7, walked once and drove in a run. Then Andujar came off the IL after eight days, and Solak got designated for assignment on June 21.
Because he’d been outrighted before in his career, Solak had the right to reject the assignment back to Triple-A. He did that. He became a free agent. But instead of shopping around, he turned around pretty quickly and signed another minor league deal with the same team. So he’s back in El Paso, where he was already hitting like the best player on the field most nights.
Solak’s big league track record
The guy has been around. He was a second-round pick by the Yankees in 2016, made his debut with the Rangers in 2019 and won their Rookie of the Year award that season. Since then, he’s bounced through Atlanta, Detroit, Pittsburgh and now San Diego. Over 995 major league plate appearances, he’s a .249/.325/.367 hitter with a 91 wRC+. That’s a touch below league average. Nothing wrong with being a useful depth piece, but it’s not the player he’s been in Triple-A lately.
Since the start of 2024, Solak has put up a .325/.410/.482 slash line with a 133 wRC+ at the minor league level. That’s consistently above-average production, and teams pay attention to that even if the big league results haven’t caught up yet.
So Solak’s on El Paso’s roster again. Andujar is healthy. The Padres have position-player depth that’s not exactly screaming for an upgrade. But if someone goes down or Solak keeps hitting like this, it’s not hard to imagine another call-up. The door is not exactly wide open, but it’s not locked either.
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