Yasmany Tomas’s time in the wilderness is over

Yasmany Tomas has become something of a standing joke, as the most well-paid minor- league player, certainly in Diamondbacks’ history - and possibly in MLB history. It has been more than two years since his last major-league appearance, which came on June 2, 2017. He went on the DL with groin tendinitis, but was placed on waivers and removed from the 40-man roster entirely before the 2018 campaign. He spent the entire year with the Reno Aces, despite earning $13.5 million, and remained there so far this season, despite being easily the most well-paid position player in the organization, at $15.5 million. That is more than twice as much as the next-highest, David Peralta at $7 million.

But that appears to be about to change. For this report came from the Pelota Cubana Blog earlier this afternoon:

This was followed by confirmation from Jesse Sanchez of MLB, who Tweeted “Yasmany Tomas is getting called up and will join the team in Miami.” There’s no word yet on how the team will be making room for him. They will need to clear a spot both on the active roster, and on the 40-man, due to him having been taken off that in April 2018, as mentioned above. The latter is probably going to be easy enough: Luke Weaver could be moved to the 60-day injured list. But this does suggest perhaps a trade of an existing outfielder is in the works, though it could just be an injury of which we are not currently aware, to Adam Jones or Jarrod Dyson, perhaps. Paternity leave for Taylor Clarke is another possibility.

Tomas has certainly been having a good season with the bat for the Reno Aces. Over 98 games, he is hitting .305/.341/.603 for a .944 OPS. Now, of course, that’s Reno and the PCL, with the new juiced balls: as a yardstick, Domingo Leyba has a .934 OPS this year with the Aces. But it is almost two hundred points better than the .745 OPS Tomas posted in Triple-A last season. It’ll be interesting to see how this translates to production at the major-league level, especially in comparison to Kevin Cron (1.284 OPS for Reno, .800 OPS in the majors). With the upcoming series in New York against the Yankees, having Tomas DH seems likely, but whether there’s more to it than that, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Doncha just love trade deadline week?