Batting average .071 Role Baseball player Salary 500,000 USD (2014) Name Neftali Soto Career start 2007 | Runs batted in 1 Weight 98 kg Home runs 0 Height 1.85 m Position Infielder | |
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Neftalí O. Soto (born February 28, 1989) is a Puerto Rican professional baseball first baseman in the Washington Nationals organization. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds.
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Early life
Soto was born in Manatí, Puerto Rico and attended Colegio Marista High School.
Cincinnati Reds
The Reds drafted Soto with a supplemental third-round pick in the 2007 Major League Baseball Draft. He played the rest of the 2007 season with the Gulf Coast League Reds rookie-class team, hitting .303 with two homers and 28 RBI.
Soto started 2008 with the rookie-class Billings Mustangs, where he hit .388 in 67 at-bats, belting four homers with 11 RBI. His performance earned him a promotion to low-A Dayton. In 218 at-bats for the Dragons, he hit .326 with seven homers and 36 RBI.
Soto was promoted again for 2009, this time to the advanced-A Sarasota Reds. He played a full season at Sarasota, getting 505 at-bats and hitting .248 with 11 homers and 57 RBI. The Reds advanced-A team moved to Lynchburg for 2010, where Soto played for the 2010 season. In 522 at-bats he hit .268 with 21 homers and 73 RBI.
In 2011, Soto played for the double-A Carolina Mudcats. He played in 102 games (379 at-bats), hitting .272 with an impressive 30 homers and 76 RBI. After the double-A season, he played in four games for triple-A Louisville, going 7-for-17 with another home run and four more RBI. His season slugging percentage was .576. Soto was named Southern League player of the week twice during the season for Carolina.
Entering his fifth year of eligibility (which would make him eligible for the Rule 5 Draft), the Reds placed him on the 40-man roster following the 2011 season.
Soto was called up to the Major Leagues for the first time on May 18, 2013. In 13 games with the Reds, he batted 0-for-12.
In 2014 he began the season on the Reds' big-league roster, and tallied his first career RBI on April 7 against the St. Louis Cardinals with a sacrifice fly off Trevor Rosenthal to drive in Ryan Ludwick. On April 14 he got his first big-league hit, a fifth-inning double off the Pittsburgh Pirates' Wandy Rodriguez.
Soto was outrighted off the Reds roster on October 28, 2014.
Chicago White Sox
On March 23, 2015, Soto was traded to the Chicago White Sox for cash considerations.
Washington Nationals
On February 8, 2016, Soto signed a minor league deal with the Washington Nationals.