Drizzle falls on a gray January morning as Royals outfielder Jorge Soler sets himself up during practice in an outdoor batting cage.
He uncorks his hips and slices his bat through the warm air. When Soler connects with a soft pitch, the baseball thwaps into the netting right above his coach’s L screen, then drops to the artificial turf. Dozens of balls have collected there throughout the hourlong hitting lesson.
“Bola,” his coach says in Spanish, telling Soler he shouldn’t be swinging at those pitches.
Soler launches the next pitch over the top of the screen and into the back of the cage.