Is Jorge Soler the next man to come to Wrigley?

Following the move to option Junior Lake to Iowa to make room for Dan Straily, the Chicago Cubs have opened up another possibility to see more of the “core” come to Wrigley.

The Cubs have been upfront with Straily that tonight’s start is a spot start to give the rotation an extra day of rest. He very well will be part of the Cubs future, but right now it’s temporary. So when they send him back down, then what?

The apparent answer would be Jorge Soler.

While only a small sample at Triple-A Iowa, Soler has continued to show he has power and plate discipline. In 22 games, Soler has 5 HR, 8 2B, knocked in 18, and has walked 12 times.

Coupled with the fact he’s already on the 40-man roster, with a major league contract and the writing seems to be on the wall. He was likely to see a September call-up, this may help the Cubs get the jump on next year.

The Cubs saw enough in Soler to get into a bidding war, eventually making the $30 million investment.

The Cubs are finally making that turn that we have been waiting for. Injecting the youth of a strong farm system into Wrigley. So far the results have been mixed, but have invigorated the players and fans alike.

We’ve also not seen the last of Junior Lake. The plan is for Lake to finish out the minor league season, and make his return to Wrigley in September. After seeing the improvement of Mike Olt since being optioned to Iowa, Lake should be encouraged.

"“I need to play,” Lake said. “Everybody wants to play here, but I need (to) play every day. That’s not a bad idea.” h/t Patrick Mooney, Cubs Insider"

Lake will get three weeks of consistent at-bats in Iowa, hopefully giving him time to get back to the form that earned him a spot on this year’s Opening Day roster.