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Washington’s Nationals have reportedly signed free agent outfielder Yasmany Tomás to a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training.
The initial report on Twitter earlier this morning by Cuban baseball writer Francys Romero has subsequently been confirmed by a number of reporters on the Nats beat.
Tomás, 30, became a free agent this winter after playing out a 6-year/$68.5M deal he got from the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2014, after he’d defected from Cuba.
The hard-hitting outfielder played in a total of 309 games with the D-backs, putting up a combined .266/.306/.459 line with 60 doubles and 48 HRs in 1,175 plate appearances in only four seasons in the majors over that time, with the bulk of his production (30 of his doubles and 31 HRs) coming in the 2016 campaign.
Sources: Washington Nationals sign Yasmany Tomas to a minor league contract that includes spring training invite. Tomas (30) will play in Puerto Rico Winter League with Cangrejeros de Santurce starting in December. pic.twitter.com/Np0JmKoFjB
— Francys Romero (@francysromero10) November 17, 2020
Defensive struggles limited the outfielder to just 51 games between 2017-19, as he played the entirety of 2018 in the minors and just four games in the majors in 2019.
Tomás wasn’t included in the D-backs’ 60-man player pool for the 2020 campaign.
In 2000 2⁄3 innings in the outfield, Tomás, according to Fangraphs, has -34 Defensive Runs Saved, with a .973 fld%, and a -15.0 Ultimate Zone Rating as a defender.
Playing at Triple-A in Arizona’s system in 2019, Tomás put up a .301/.341/.590 line with 24 doubles and 29 HRs in 102 games and 405 PAs.
In his big league career, the right-handed hitting slugger has a .293/.343/.537 line in 328 PAs vs left-handed pitchers, with some power (42 of his doubles and 31 HRs) off of right-handed pitchers, against whom he has a .256/.291/.431 career line in 851 PAs.
Does the signing signify that the Nats believe the DH will be back in the National League in 2021 after it was used in the 60-game COVID campaign? Having lost both Michael A. Taylor and Adam Eaton to free agency this winter (assuming neither returns to D.C.) is Tomás just some outfield depth for the organization? What do you think of the signing?