Cubs place Jorge Soler on the 15-day DL

After trying to play Monday night with an injured ankle, Jorge Soler was diagnosed with an ankle sprain, and consequently placed on the 15-day DL. This is obviously unfortunate news for the team, but will allow Soler to rest up and fully heal without taking up a roster spot. He got off to a slow start in April, but started to turn his season around in May, hitting .288 compared to .247.

Soler has had a somewhat perplexing season, as his power numbers have dropped significantly from last year, yet his hard hit percentage has hardly changed. His ISO in 2014 was a staggering .281, but in 2015 is just .138. His hard hit rate however is among the best in baseball, and ranks 19th overall at 39.5 percent. Those statistics don't seem to match up, and among those 19 players with the best hard hit rates, Soler has the worst ISO by .043 points.

To take his spot on the roster for the immediate future, the Cubs have recalled Mike Baxter, but it might not be for long. Aside from the fact that Baxter simply isn't good and is nothing more than organization depth for the Cubs, it looks like Javier Baez may be primed for a promotion. He's playing extremely well in AAA, and for at least the next couple games is going to be playing third base for Iowa.

Before the news broke that Soler was heading to the DL, this looked like a potential showcase for a future trade, but now appears to bring Baez back to the big league club. While Kris Bryant is still the third baseman, he has played four games in the outfield this season, and could slide into left field until Soler is ready to return.

While Baez has been playing the middle infield exclusively in AAA up until now, Brett Taylor points out that Addison Russell didn't spend much time at second before being called up to the big leagues.

For the record, Russell played 5 games at 2B before he was called up.

— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) June 3, 2015

Regardless of what the Cubs choose to do with Baez, Soler should be back in two weeks time, as his sprain doesn't seem serious. It's unlikely that Soler would need a rehab stint, but even if he did it would just for just one or two games.