Yasmany Tomas Progressing Well In Majors
The Arizona Diamondbacks $68 million offseason acquisition, Yasmany Tomas, has started his Major League Baseball career off nicely.
There were a lot of questions surrounding him and the team’s decision to sign him this past offseason, but so far, Tomas is growing into a major leaguer very well. The questions surrounding him weren’t unfounded. He came from Cuba and there wasn’t much known about him other than he has big opposite field power and is an average defender in the outfield.
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Even more questions were raised before Spring Training when the Diamondbacks decided to play him at third base, instead of the outfield where he is more accustomed.
As was predicted, he struggled at third base during the Spring. Despite that, Arizona stuck it out and kept him at the position.
When the season began, Jake Lamb won the starting job at third, David Peralta, Ender Inciarte, AJ Pollock and Mark Trumbo won the outfield spots. With Aaron Hill and Cliff Pennington on the roster as well, they secured back up roles which included third base. So, there was just no room for Tomas with the big league club at the time and he was sent down to Triple A Reno in an attempt to find his way defensively and offensively with consistent playing time.
Sending him down for more playing time made sense, but then he was almost immediately called up to the majors in only the second week of the season.
At the time, it didn’t make much sense. Tomas wasn’t hitting well in Reno and Diamondbacks manager, Chip Hale, said that they wanted his bat off the bench.
It really looked like Tomas wasn’t being handled well by the organization and that this promising player would be off to a strange and possibly bad start to his career.
That now brings us to today. Tomas struggled a bit in the beginning, as was expected for someone transitioning to a new culture, country and a higher skilled baseball league, but he has quietly had a pretty good start to his MLB career.
Now, we aren’t even half way through the 2015 season yet, but Tomas is hitting .309, slugging .382, has an OBP of .356 with 9 RBI and 21 hits. He only has one home run and it came on Saturday against the Phillies. Which was as advertised, an opposite field shot.
Apr 24, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks right fielder Yasmany Tomas (24) looks on during the fourth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
When he first arrived, he was very aggressive at the plate. He seemed to be trying a little too hard to make an impact, but as the season has gone on, he’s made the necessary adjustments. He’s more patient at the plate willing to see a few more pitches and has stopped swinging too hard. These aren’t jump off the page type numbers, but for how he was handled to start his MLB career, I’d say he’s coming along nicely offensively.
His defense was at the top of the questions list when he came to Arizona, but so far, he’s handled that well too.
With Jake Lamb going down with an injury, Tomas has been put back at third despite his Spring Training performance. As of Sunday, Tomas has played 16 of his 24 games at third base. He’s played it well, not Gold Glove caliber by any means, but he’s been respectable at the hot corner.
In 37 chances, he has 13 put outs, 22 assists, two errors and is carrying a .946 fielding percentage. He’s also been involved with three double plays. Just like on offense, these numbers aren’t jumping off the page at you, but for someone new to the position, he’s handled it well. He also moves well for his size at a position that requires immediate reflexes. He makes the plays you expect a third baseman to make and with plus defensive guys at short, second and first, it takes some of the pressure off of Tomas allowing him to get comfortable with the position.
There have been some not so pretty plays on both offense and defense, but he’s making positive progress overall. Isn’t that what the 2015 season is about for Arizona anyway? The Diamondbacks are young, in fact, they are youngest team in MLB with an average age of 27.3. They are rebuilding and this season is for seeing what they have and working the kinks out of a few guys at the major league level more than it is to compete as a serious contender.
This is the future for the Diamondbacks and you can’t get there without some experience. For the fans, it looks to be another rough one, but for the new and young players like Tomas, it’s an important one in order to grow and become an effective piece for the team when they are ready to compete.