The Diamondbacks have called up recent Cuban signee Yasmany Tomas from Triple-A, the club announced. Tomas had opened the season in the upper minors despite inking a six-year, $68.5MM contract to join Arizona over the offseason.
Of course, Tomas is just 24 years of age and never really settled on a defensive position over the spring, making his early-season demotion more than understandable. While he did not do much with the 23 plate appearances he saw at the Triple-A level, Tomas also got over 70 plate appearances in the spring to prepare him for the season.
Tomas has shown largely the skillset that was expected: he has immense power, but may not reach base at a productive clip. He seems to be capable of hitting big league pitching, though precisely how well remains to be seen. Baseball America listed him as the game’s 57th overall prospect based largely on his bat, noting the possibility that he’ll strike out a lot, though BA is also fairly bullish on his ability to be an average player in other respects.
The real question, it would seem, is defense. An experimental effort to play him at third did not look very promising over the spring, and fellow youngster Jake Lamb has hit his way into playing time there. First base is a non-starter with Paul Goldschmidt installed. The likeliest scenario, then, is that Tomas will play in the corner outfield, though it remains to be seen how much time he’ll get there with Mark Trumbo, David Peralta, and Ender Inciarte all in the mix.
With the move, Tomas’s service clock will start in time for him to compile a full year of MLB service in 2015. Of course, that likely will not mean much to him. Tomas is under contract through at least 2018 and possibly through 2020, as his contract contains an opt-out clause after four seasons. It’s theoretically possible, then, that Tomas could end up in an arbitration scenario, though it does seem rather unlikely.
Regardless, the timing of the move seems odd, as the D-Backs have said that they would prefer Tomas see regular playing time in the upper minors before ascending. Though it is possible that he will see consistent action in the big leagues, that will send someone else to the bench — presumably Peralta or Inciarte.
For the Diamondbacks, the allure of a lineup including the right-handed power of Tomas, Trumbo and Goldschmidt is easy to understand, but that lineup would likely lead to a defensive alignment featuring Trumbo and Tomas manning the outfield corners. A.J. Pollock’s defensive wizardry in center field notwithstanding, that outfield defense would likely serve as a significant hindrance to an already questionable pitching staff.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Maybe the they plan on letting him catch or play SS. D-backs are real wildcards when it comes to defense.
That’s sort of silly.
Yep and 3B was serious. Sometimes I think the D-backs had Rusney Castillo and Yasmany Tomas when they signed him.
You have a problem with Lamb at 3B? He’s hitting .389 / .476 / .722, and playing excellent defense. In fact, the DBacks seem to be committed to D, as short of Trumbo, every guy starting is an above average defender……and it’s not like they are going to start Trumbo over Goldschmidt at 1B.
They need Trumbo to protect Goldschmidt in the order. If Tomas can hit enough to protect Goldschmidt, then he can have RF and Trumbo will be made available for a pitcher.
Obviously the DBacks are committed to defense. La Russa / Stewart did not trade for Trumbo, they inherited him. They’ll get that team settled in the next year. The new administration has done some good things since they took over. I’ve enjoyed watching the team play.
I don’t think you got the joke…
I guess not.
can he throw the ball back to the pitcher?
Lineup protection isn’t real.
Also I doubt a pitcher is going to pitch goldsmitch an mvp hitter differently because 91 Wrc+ trumbo is coming up
LOL
Tell it to the quality hitter that doesn’t see pitches to hit.
Like who. Trumbo is not getting Goldschmidt pitches to hit. Goldy is the guy on the Diamondbacks no one pitches to if given the opportunity.
Trumbo is protecting nobody.
Stastical studies done on the subject have shown no difference in pitches seen by the hitter or the production of the hitter based on the quality of hitter behind him. Look it up.
Nope. Pitchers are pitching around Goldschmidt to get to anyone else, especially Trumbo.
Have to disagree on this one. Although there’s no statistics to back it, it’s one of those things that is just commonplace belief among batters that doesn’t need stats to back it, and in theory, it makes sense. If you have multiple offensive threats lined up, why would you want to pitch around one to get to another.
Trumbo isn’t a threat. His OBP is so low that it actually makes sense to go right after him with regularity.
Oh, my comment isn’t an endorsement of Trumbo as a threat,i’m just talking lineup protection as a whole.
Absolutely 100% agree, pitchers facing Bonds have had quotes on it saying they’d rather face anyone but Bonds with no outs and the bases juiced… Which is why he’s been walked with the bases loaded TWICE!
With Barry Bonds being so intimidating to face, it’s not unlikely that the batter infront of Bonds was pitched to the majority of the time just to avoid a showdown with Barry and anyone on base.
I understand the theory and it makes sense but when all the statistical studies disprove the theory it’s not right.
For example, theory that sun revolves around earth makes sense but science says its wrong doesn’t mean you still believe the theory,
That comparison is a bit of a stretch. I don’t think there would be statistics to back the lineup protection theory because of how many variables go into facing a lineup. Furthermore, I don’t think there are any studies at all disproving it, moreover there’s just a lack of studies to prove it. Some things in baseball can’t be answered by stats and I think this is one of them.
Fair to disagree.
Personally I’ve read several articles saying 1 of two things.
1. They did not find an effect on hitter production or how a pitcher pitched to them based on “protection”.
2. They found hitter had higher SLG% with a good hitter behind them but less walks which cancelled each other out to equal the same production.
Yeah this is certainly a case where there will be varied opinions due to lack of concrete evidence to prove or disprove it. Like I said, there’s such a large number of variables that go into facing a lineup that it’d be really hard to come up with the end-all answer to it’s truth. While I think those points are interesting, they don’t paint the whole picture.
Either way I think we can both agree Trumbo isn’t providing protection to anyone ;).
Certainly agree there!
might be less likely to walk him.
This signing never made sense to me. Peralta and Inciatre both seem like legit big leaguers and Pollock & Trumbo are already entrenched. I am wondering if adding one of them (Peralta/Inciarte) to a deal with Aaron Hill will speed up the process of sending him elsewhere.
Makes no sense to me. Nearly $70MM for a guy that strikes out a lot, can’t hit for average, OBP or play defense? Players with big power and those downsides aren’t that hard to find. You could have Dayan Viciedo for a fraction of the cost. Sign Quentin for the league minimum or look at the number of other players with that one redeeming quality and lack of other skillset.
On one hand I agree. On the other, why were 4-5 teams bidding on him till the last few days?
Best guess? Hoping hes the next Jose Abreu when it sure looks like hes the next Dayan Viciedo.
Realistically he is probably somewhere in between those two extremes. But probably closer to the Viciedo end.
Don’t most of those characteristics you listed also apply to Trumbo? Maybe this is the “type” Stewart and LaRussa are going for…
Yes, the roster is overloaded with guys like that.
If the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Giants or Padres had signed the guy……
They do indeed. Difference is Trumbo isn’t getting near 70MM over 6 years.
Trumbo is Arb 3 next season and probably makes $10MM. Toss on four more ears after that at probably $14MM/year and he’ll be awfully close.
I’m just now looking at his bbref page. His numbers in Cuba are really meh, but I guess batting practice power can fool anyone.
Hopefully he will be better than Dayan Viciedo for $68.5M, who incidentally hasn’t gotten a job, yet.
The potential for being an even bigger bust is just as high as the potential for him to be a success. He is going to be all or nothing. Right now he doesn’t even have a position he can play, and he is on a NL team. That is not making things any better.
You would think they would have played him at AAA steadily in one of the corner outfield spots for a month at least, before bringing him up to play…every day, or nearly so.
Even AJ Preller thinks an outfield with both Trumbo and Tomas is a bad idea!
The D’backs are in a bind, they have 68 million rapped up in this guy. No way the D’back management let him stay in the minors. Rather trade a productive bat in Trumbo than waste the money they have in Tomas.
This makes no sense whatsoever so naturally the Diamondbacks are doing it.
Trumbo, Tomas, O’Brien…Diamondbacks don’t have a first-base spot open, and obviously don’t have a DH. Odd what they’re doing, stockpiling zero-defense guys with nowhere to put them.
Dave Dombrowski with a bag of magic beans is holding on line 1…says he has the Yankees committed to bringing in Inciarte as part of a 3 way for Betances.