Thoughts on Yasmany Tomas

Right now, the fastest and easiest way for MLB team to dramatically upgrade their talent is to sign a player who has defected from Cuba.  There are several reasons for this:  1.  Teams do not have to wait their turn in a draft cue to sign them.  2.  If they have a certain number of years of experience in Cuban baseball, they are not subject to the spending limitations of other international free agents.  3.  The MLB free agent market has all but dried up leaving very few impact FA's available from year to year.  4.  There have been enough signings of Cuban players now to know that worries about level of competition were probably unfounded.  These guys are ready to play right away, for the most part.

The latest Cuban defector to come available, or at least soon be available, is OF Yasmany Tomas.  Tomas has played CF in Cuba, but has a relatively short, heavy body type that projects more as a corner OF, probably LF.  There are a couple of videos available of Tomas on Youtube(I don't have a link, but they are very easy to find if you just go to Youtube and search his name) including one of a moonshot HR he hit against an asian team in international competition.

I made a comment awhile back that I see a very quick, short, powerful swing without much, if any extra movement in it.  With the body type and the position he plays, my comp was Kevin Mitchell, a former Giants LF who hit a few HR's in his day.  Although the body type is not exciting, I assume that if he played CF in Cuba, he has enough tools to play LF in MLB.  Beyond that, you are looking at a player for his bat and not much else.  I think the bat has a chance to be special.

Kiley McDaniel, of Fangraphs, wrote up a scouting report on Tomas on 9/25/2014 entitled Scouting Yasmany Tomas that largely agrees with what I have said about him in prior comments.  Kiley posted some video from a relatively recent international tournament which demonstrates his swing mechanics quite well, but also shows him looking heavy and slow.  Like other recent Cuban FA's, he has reportedly gotten himself into the Best Shape of His Life and looks much better now.  If you look up the Fangraphs article, be sure to scroll down into the Comments to find an in-depth analysis of Tomas' swing in answer to a questioner who thought his hands looked slow.  Here is the key paragraph that explains what I see, but does a much better job of explaining than I:

"Tomas generates above average bat speed, but doesn't load his hands as far back as most sluggers.  Almost all power hitters load their hands(maximum distance from contact) about as far back as possible….and Tomas does not do this.  This means he has the power and bat speed of a big time power hitter with the short path of a contact hitter."  Now, I have to confess that differences in bat speed through the strike zone are a very tough for me to see, but I completely agree with Kiley's description of Tomas load mechanism compared to most power hitters.  Think Joe Panik with light tower power!

Now, none of this guarantees Tomas success in MLB.  Swing mechanics is only part of the equation.  I would describe Angel Villalona's swing mechanics in similar terms, but pitch recognition and strike zone discipline have held Angel V back big time.  In the tournament where the video on Fangraphs was filmed, Tomas faced elite U.S. amateur pitchers, many of whom were eventual first round draft picks and did not fare well, generating just 3 singles and a ton of K's against them.  Of course, he also appeared to be out of shape at the time, which BTW raises other questions about his long term value.  Still, the swing mechanics combined with the track records of other Cuban players is enough to convince me that Tomas' bat is for real.

It just so happens that Tomas projects to a position, LF, that the Giants desperately need to upgrade for next season.  It also happens that the Giants have shown serious interest in other Cuban FA's such as Jose Abreu and Rusney Castillo reportedly coming in second in the bidding for both.  It may or may not be relevant information that Tomas is represented by Jay Alou, who obviously has family ties to the Giants organization, and Tomas recent workout was held at the Giants Dominican baseball academy, although attended by over 100 scouts and MLB execs.

I don't know how far the Giants are willing to go to sign one of these talented Cuban FA's.  So far, their strategy seems to have been to make a strong offer, but not get involved in a bidding war.  Now, I am not one of those guys who presumes to know more about the Giants financial situation than they do, or at least what the Giants SAY their situation is.  If they don't have the money to sign another big, longterm contract, then so be it.  So far it is hard to take too much issue with the way the Giants go about their business.  Their reported behavior in the Abreu and Castillo cases would suggest that there is money in the pot to spend on the right player. I will say this:  Based on everything I know about Yasmany Tomas, if they are going to spend big on a Cuban FA, or any FA for that matter, Tomas is a guy who I think the money would be well spent on.