D’backs Sign Tomas

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As you may have heard, Yasmany Tomas has reached an agreement with the Arizona Diamondbacks on a 6 year, $68.5M contract.  The Trade Rumors link is below.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/11/diamondbacks-to-sign-yasmany-tomas.html

I’m sure you need a place to vent about the Phillies’ inabity to sign Tomas, so here it is.  But, really, after we’ve heard so much about Tomas breaking the $100M barrier for a Cuban signee, and with all the teams who were supposedly “in” on him (SanDiego, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Arizona, San Francisco, and some “mystery” teams) doesn’t it seem odd that he only got a little over $11M/year?

Let the bashing begin.

115 thoughts on “D’backs Sign Tomas”

  1. Yeah all we heard for weeks was his expected 100 mill deal, so I understood the reports that the Phills had started to sour on him. But hearing what he signed for, I am very surprised and disappointed that the Phills couldn’t get a deal done, especially since it wouldn’t count towards any international spending money

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  2. Why would we be upset? Another year of Brown, Revere and 37 year old Marlon Byrd in the outfield is enough to make me happy. What are the chances that we get back Mayberry, Jr in any of these Hamels trade scenarios??

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  3. I like to think that the Phillies are concentrating on going after Moncada……but my confidence is waning.

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    2. Anonymous – I hear where you are coming from as I made similar arguments when it was mentioned that a contract may approach $100mil, but in this instance I think the price was worth the gamble. If he hits .275 with 30hrs next season, even with ineffective defense, at the very least he becomes a considerable trade chip to an AL team who can slot him into a DH role. At just over $11mil per year, the risk was well worth the upside and I think this is a move the Phillies should have pulled the trigger on. Another big fail for the front office if you ask me

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  5. So, basically the Phillies passed on a chance to gamble that Tomas proves to be as good as advertised and then they have to pay a huge premium to lock him into a long-term deal or see him walk in four years? Not a great proposition for the team. I was enthusiastic about the idea of signing him, even if it was to a deal in the 7-years, $90-$100 million range. But this deal is a win-now deal for both sides. Tomas is betting he’ll look good in 2019, and the Diamondbacks are betting they’ll be good again soon.

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    2. MAttWinks says contract has a four year buyout and Tomas will hope for bigger payout at age 28.
      Phillies probably would not agree to that buyout.

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  6. It’s always interesting to figure out who is actually passing info on to the media. Going from 100m to 68.5m is quiet a jump. This feels better that they passed on him. We will see what he actually is but seeing him bat .220 and have negative defensive value would make me happy and more confident in our scouts. We will see.

    On the good front, now that Tomas is gone, the Byrd market should be opening up again soon. Let the rumors begin.

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    2. I agree. What if he’s a younger Ryan Howard? .220 hitter with 30 homers and 200 strikeouts and plays defense like dom brown. We would all be complaining pretty badly.

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      1. Ask yourself this, is there anyone on the farm with his ceiling? Nope, and therein lies the rub.

        Tomas would be the best corner OF prospect AND player on the Phillies roster when Spring Training opens.

        Quinn is a different situation because he is being groomed for CF and leadoff while Tomas is being groomed for the four spot in the lineup.

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        1. But from what we are hearing, he has 1-tool. 1-tool players don’t survive in this game anymore. Larry Greene Jr was seen as a kid with a ton of power and potential. Now he’s one of our biggest busts.

          If we signed Tomas, and he didn’t walk, struck out a ton, can’t run, isn’t too good on defense, and doesn’t hit well, but he knocks out 30 homers, sure there’s value in the power, but when it’s all added up, he ends up hurting you more than helping.

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          1. That’s not at all what the published scouting reports say. What I’ve read is he’s not a CF but will be fine in a corner OF position, has surprisingly ok speed, and projects to hit .250 – .260. That is not a one-trick pony. The comparison to Larry Greene, Jr. is especially inapt, because Greene doesn’t have power, he only has raw, batting practice power. Tomas has shown in-game power. We drafted a raw power guy first and an 80-tool speed guy second in that draft — unfortunately the speed guy turned out to have better in-game power than the raw power tool guy. Raw power as a tool is pretty much a joke, at least as the Phillies assess it.

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    3. not a very nice thing to wish for, someone to fail so your failure of a team can look smart. guessing you applaud your buddies when they miss their putt

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  7. No reason they shouldn’t have signed Tomas it wouldn’t cost draft picks or international pool money. The opt-out shouldn’t have mattered they had the money just sign the guy and add talent to the org.

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    1. Alex, the Phillies have a lot of holes and can’t overspend on one player. What if Tomas made Dom Brown look like Willie Mays and hit like Dave Kingman? There must have been a lot of concern about him as he came in way below his predicted signing total and many teams that could have used him passed on him for some reason.

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        1. I grew up watching Kingman. All he could do was hit home runs. He struck out. Couldn’t hit for average. Didn’t get on a base. Was a terrible fielder (even though, physically, he was fast and gifted and had pitched in college – he just was awkward and didn’t care), was a distant and indifferent teammate and was a jerk to the media.

          But I will say this – at least he was entertaining. I still maintain that nobody ever hit the ball consistently farther than Dave Kingman. He was unreal. I once saw him hit the rim of the building at Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Was it a homer? Nobody knew because he hit it like 100 feet above the TOP of the foul pole (they called it foul, but I think it was fair). Had it been an open air stadium, the ball might have gone like 530 feet – no kidding. To this day, I’ve never seen anything like it.

          So, he was not a good player (although, in his defense, he had a few good seasons that were good, including a really good year for the Cubs), but he was fun to watch. The Phillies’ position players are also not good ball players (on the whole) but are boring to watch. So if I’m going to be watching losing baseball, I’d prefer to at least be entertained to some degree. With the exception of the bullpen and Cole Hamels, there wasn’t much was fun to watch last year (or the year before that).

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      2. Who are they going to sign instead the free agent market is barren they aren’t hurting financially. If Tomas didn’t work out all they would have lost is money which shouldn’t matter that much to a big market franchise.

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      3. I agree with philabaltfan. I’m sure most people would’ve guessed this guy was headed for a $100M payday, or a shorter deal at high annual average value. And I’m sure everybody would have bet their pay checks he was going to get more than Castillo.

        But he didn’t.

        What does that tell you? Heck, they traded for this guy last year in the form of Mark Trumbo. Let’s see who has a better year.

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  9. Arghhh . Oh well , I mean all of this no defense had pat Burrell laughing , really Phillies brass , really anyway I think they will get the point when nobody shows up to games and they finally bounce the current regime , that is the only positive I can think of is with all of the mounting piles of stupidity has to lead to the firing of Rub

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  10. We won’t have any idea if this was a good pass for a few years. I really wanted to sign him, but have to admit I have no idea how good he actually is.

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  11. Well Dom Brown and Darin Ruf should be relieved now that once Byrd is traded they will get a lot of playing time. The Phillies should field as many offers for Marlon Byrd as possible and take the best offer.

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    1. Good point but Tomas could be future good but Cruz won’t last another 2 years I would think , could be wrong but

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  14. The most disappointing part of the Amaro interview after the news of Tomas signing came up is that he said he’s really not looking for offense or production, he’s looking for pitching. As a guy who is a partial season ticket holder and goes to about 20 games a year and watches most of the rest on television I thought to myself, “what the are you talking about?” This team is one of the most boring awful teams I have ever watched and I grew up watching a lot of bad baseball. They are unwatchable.

    If this is going to be his approach, we should all just sit on the sidelines waiting another 3 or 4 years for the team to fire him because I don’t see how they can move forward with this idiot at the helm. The guy has no idea how to build a productive offense and he has been dreadful with player evaluations and overall strategy. I’ve renewed my season tickets for some dumb reason, but I don’t see how I’m going to do it again next year if I don’t even see the team moving in a productive direction – I sure as hell don’t see that now.

    Just dreadful.

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    1. And this is not a reaction to the Tomas signing – I have no clue whether it was a good idea for them to pass on him or not. This about the GM’s approach and performance as a whole.

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      1. I will definitely go to some games and watch games on TV, at least to some degree, but my continued patronage as a partial season ticket holder going forward is not a given.

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  15. At some point, even with the Amaro bashing(Amaro still doesn’T make the total decision; it is a committee discussioj with the addition of the Atlanta guy taking over for Woliever, and being a very good latin America talent guy with Agostinelli, and Gillick himself, they are not stupid guys regardless of what any other “media or bloggers say. Some criticisms are warranted absolutely, “wait patiently” are two tough words to put together.but time will tell. We do not know allthe conversations they have, whether trade talks and what they can do. All these “tweeters” are not gods knowing everything.They basically call a number of GMs aboutwhat other Gms are talking about. Amaro us known for “settling for LESS in return in trades because of the original Lee trade. Or they say like Abreu deal with Yankees.”If we take on the whole salary, you take less talented players in return;” and vice versa. It takes a certain type player to play in Philly and New York makeup wise; to perform under the eye of Passionate “FANS” sea sawing up and down , rise or fall every inning, every start, relief appearance, every rbi opportunity plus big time media writers, radio talk show (That only happens with negative happenings with t h e teams in New York and Philly N.W Corrider) So, is thebglass half full or half empty? They decide not to sign Tomas at 68m with 4 yr opt out. Either they KNOW what they are doing or they do not. ! Every one can react like a fan ,limited real knowledge today.

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    2. I don’t know how much they know. They have established over the years how allergic they are to spending on the international market. If anonymous is correct and the whole gallery of manages and consultants hashed this out, then I guess it’s natural that they defaulted to their old patterns of behavior. Tomas may be flawed, but the Phillies don’t have a ton of opportunity to use their very rich Comcast revenue stream to add net talent to the organization. They passed on Rusney Castillo, excusing that move by saying Tomas was the guy the wanted — the perfect fit for their needs. Then it was the need to clear salary. Then he was too expensive. Now it’s the structure of the deal. Now RAJ says we’re after pitching instead of offense, so this is no biggie. This sounds like the old ‘we’re in on him’ story the Phillies put out in the past on every Cuban. There was just always something wrong. The value was out of whack. It was like we never busted draft or international caps, because honest to God our scouts never saw anyone out there who justified taking the plunge. The stories wear thin after a while, especially when the reason changes a half dozen times.

      So RAJ is hot after pitching. I guess that means we should expect a Lester signing by Christmas, or not.

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      1. Tomas over Castillo…..Moncada over Tomas.
        Who’s the next Cuban ‘to kick the can down the road’ for?.

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    3. Good realistic post showing that passion is not wanted in decision making. Level headed people are needed to make decisions that are best for the team not the fan base.

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  16. My sentiments match exactly those of J64. Perhaps the disappointment will pass and I will be glad that I renewed (upgraded) my partial package again this year, but for now I am wondering the why and what for.

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  18. As noted above, I think that Tomas’ agent was probably insiting on the opt out clause as his strategy, meaning that Yasmany could be leaving after the 2018 season- just when the Phillies were becoming competitive- unless; of course, he sucked and the Phillies would be stuck paying him for another two years. If he was as good as billed, he would opt out, demand a huge long term contract, and set up a Ryan Howard–episode 2 situation; or the Phillies could refuse and face a wave of criticism for letting a young star walk away.

    I would have loved to have signed Tomas, but under the given circumstances, no thanks.

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    1. Tomas though defensively, only has the two corner OF positions, with RF being suspect with his limited speed, and of course first base.
      He may end up an AL guy in 4/5 years with the DH in play then.

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    2. Why do you think Phil’s will be competitive in 2018? The farm is bottom half. We will be in the same place five years from now, unless something drastic changes. I have voted with my wallet. No more games, no hats, or jerseys. I watch on tv, I root like crazy, but I refuse to further enrich this bungling bunch of millionaires running the team. One of the most disgraceful management/ownership groups in sports.

      This individual decision may be good or bad, but the run of poor drafting, bad contracts, questionable signings, and unwillingness to spend internationally have damned this team. It isn’t just Ruben, it takes a village to be this messed up.

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  19. So frustrating. Knowing the backlash, Rube must have had organizational buy in on this….especially because they desperately needed a player like Tomas to re-energize this fan base. When I couple those two things it paints a bad picture for me – Rube knows he will be here beyond this year.

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    1. They may need a player to energize the fan base but why did that player have to be “like Tomas.” I read those scouting reports and it looks to me like below average defense/arm, average speed, veru questionable hit tool with little plate discipline.

      I’m not disappointed in the slightest

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      2. funny all these comments about how happy we are they didn’t sign tomas. sure didn’t hear that from many people before the fact. i’m glad i didn’t hit the lottery this week. 4 years from now i’d just be broke again. frontrunners

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        1. Wrong term. Not front-runners, management apologists. And you are exactly correct, the mood here was strongly wanting to sign Tomas and expecting it to happen, until the Phillies PR-excuse machine sprang into action. This is what happens when the Phillies owners tell the GM that they will not approve the spending. The GM has to come up with an explanation that doesn’t put the onus on the owners. It’s amazing to me just how many fans lap up the PR explanation.

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        2. FWIW, I think all but one of the comments you refer to might be first time commenters. But you’re right, they was very little, if any, “don’t sign him” sentiment.

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  20. While I’m disappointed we didn’t get a shiny new toy to get excited about, it’s not lost on me that he didn’t go for that much money. And he went to a team with a brand new first time GM who likely spent too much to put something new on his shelf. I’m thinking that we probably did the right thing by not spending it on him.

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  21. This was a baseball decision, not a money decision. Time will tell if this is a bad decision, but even at this lower price, this was a big decision, so they had to have a conviction. They did a ton of homework on the guy, and didn’t have a conviction. Therefore, I don’t have a problem with the decision.

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    1. V1 – I agree though I don’t necessarily trust the capability of this front office, particularly RAJ, to appropriately evaluate players. For the contract he signed he would need to be a complete bust offensively and I for one would have been in considering the price. As you state, time will tell

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    2. That’s just an assumption that this was not a money decision. Over the years, the Phillies have been ‘interested in’, ‘evaluating’, ‘working out’, seeing particular Cubans as ‘great fits’. Except for MAG, they never pulled the trigger. Somewhere toward the end in all of these cases, some explanation along the lines of ‘too expensive’ or ‘the price was bid up too high’ was always given for why the Philllies didn’t pull the trigger. Cost was mentioned with Tomas, as well. Also this time there were repeated statements in the press about the Phillies needing to get some things done before they could sign Tomas. Writers speculated that what had to be done first was clearing some salary. I would say the circumstantial evidence is quite strong that this is primarily about money and not a baseball decision at all. The Phillies have come out with their typical CYA for the owners statements to suggest that this is a baseball decision rather than a case of RAJ not being given permission in the end to spend the money. These explanations seem especially artificial given that the Phillies brass can’t even stick to their story — first it was a concern about Tomas’s defense and work habits, concerns raised very late in the game for a guy the Philllies had been all over, then RAJ changed tune to say that the Phillies goal was actually to add pitching, not offense, this off-season. So, maybe in isolation these shifting baseball explanations fly, but taken with the sweep of the Philiies past actions on Cubans and never being among the big bonus spenders internationally, apart from the inexplicable Koreans back in the day, this explanation strikes me as extremely unlikely.

      When it comes to acquiring any player who doesn’t have major league experience, it appears that money is always the problem with the Phillies. It can be the J.D. Drew fiasco, not violating Selig’s suggestion that total draft bonuses not exceed his recommended bonuses for first 10 rounds, never spending more than 100% of their international allocation or allocation for top 10 rounds of draft when the rules invite going to 105% and most teams exceed 100% with a third of teams going to 104+%, to not having a recent international bonus that has exceeded $1 million.

      Apologists say that none of the above matter. The Phillies have their own way of doing things, they rely upon scouting, and large numbers of international signings, and the magic of a facility in VZ as well as the DR, and they spend their money on the surer thing: 35+ guys with a ton of major league experience. Besides, under the new system, the Phillies always spend about 90% of the max the rules permit, other than the loop-hole provided for a one-year blowout of the international allocation. Those who used to apologize for the Phillies non-signings and timidity, and general cheapness on the draft in the days when there were no limits, now prefer to admit that perhaps the team was misguided back then, but we are in a different age now and it is boorish to dwell on the past.

      The Phillies marketing-, PR-, and money-based approach to baseball would be fine, if it worked. It hasn’t worked. The marketing-driven nostalgia express approach to creating the oldest lineup in baseball, filled with 2008 heroes and recognizable names, has brought us to repeat 73-win seasons and the NL East basement, with even the Phillies now admitting that there is absolutely nothing they can do anymore to even pretend that a favorable result is possible in 2015, as the old dudes trot out there one more time and yet another year older.

      There might be some baseball risk in individual Cuban signings. Both Castillo (now listed as the #3 prospect in a very strong Red Sox farm) and Tomas carry risk and cost many $millions. Still — given the state of the Phillies and the few chances available for them to improve rapidly, not signing Castillo or Tomas is clearly a far bigger risk. It is actually a certainty: the Phillies will stink again for at least the next two seasons and have shown zero evidence of a plan to contend in 2017/18. They will sit back and sell tickets to anyone interested in seeing the 2008 heroes flail around for another two losing seasons.

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    3. didn’t they do a lot of homework on howard before they gave him a contract that was panned by everyone, even the revisionist history phillie fans. didn’t they do a lot of homework before getting zilch in the trades for lee and pence

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      1. The Lee trade was actually a very rushed affair and it is not at all sure how much homework was done with other possible trading partners prior to pulling the trigger with Seattle. They seemed to just glom onto the Seattle trade after Seattle was mentioned as the third partner in a three-team deal with Toronto that fell apart. Not much written on how careful they were on the Pence deal. They seemed to be in salary dump mode.

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  22. Arguing that the Phillies are cheap is absurd. They have one of the highest payrolls in the game and have for several years. Using JD Drew as an example is equally absurd. That was a completely different regime and a very different time in baseball.

    Arguing that they don’t like to spend big on unproven talent is a fair argument. You might disagree with that strategy, but it is not an uncommon approach within major league sports.

    Keep in mind, their director of scouting is extremely highly regarded. He was the head international scout with the Braves. He signed many stars. I think he knows more about scouting players than anyone on this blog. Let’s give him some time to prove his worth.

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    1. 1. I did not say ‘the Phillies are cheap’ so the justification that they have had one of the highest payrolls in the game is an absurd defense. I said ‘general cheapness on the draft’. Over the years I’ve also said ‘cheapness on the international market’. I hope you can notice the big difference between saying they are cheap when it comes to acquiring non-MLB talent and saying they are overall cheap or cheap when it comes to assembling an MLB roster. In fact, I’ve many times said that they are all too eager to pay too much for too many years to old vets. Your defense is like berating the waitress who accuses the millionaire athlete for being cheap because he is consistently tipping 1%, by telling her ‘he can’t be cheap. Just look at him — he’s wearing $50K of man jewelry, a $5,000 bespoke suit, and look out the window and you’ll see him getting into a $100K car — it’s just one of the ten he owns, by the way. That man can’t possibly be called cheap, he spends as much on himself as the average banana republic dictator.’ Except — the guy is very cheap in tipping waitresses, a pretty clear sign that he devalues waitresses and treats them cheaply. Now he can claim principle — he thinks the tipping culture demeans her and she should be paid $30K a year, except she’s not paid $30K a year and has to get by on tips. So, just no! A big MLB salary budget does not mean a team doesn’t take a very cheap approach to non-MLB talent. It seems to be a caste-system in the eyes of the Phillies owners.

      2. I’m not sure what the capabilities of the director of scouting have to do with the situation. The owners either allowed him to spend the money or they didn’t. The Phillies were raving about Tomas and what a great fit he was with the team, then suddenly they couldn’t spend the necessary $. Sounds like the baseball guys thought they had permission and either were wrong or that permission was withdrawn.

      3, Yes, the Phillies-level of reluctance to spend $$ on unproven talent, while certainly not unique in sports, is definitely well behind the cutting edge and I think among the minority of teams who pinch pennies in that area.

      4. No, J.D. Drew is not an absurd example. Especially since Giles’ fingerprints as owner were all over that one. And no, baseball and the Phillies attitude haven’t changed a ton since that time. I’d say that rather than being an absurd example, Drew is the epitome of the thinking of Phillies owners. They didn’t have to draft Drew. They knew full well what it would cost to sign him. There certainly were excellent alternatives. Glaus would have looked great in Philly and we was the overwhelming consensus as the third best guy in the draft. At one point in negotiations, it actually looked like the impossible might happen and the Phillies GM might reach a compromise with Boras. Giles quickly stepped in to quash that. He was a whole-hearted supporter of Selig’s Don Quijote campaign against bonuses paid to amateurs of whatever stripe.

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  23. That is a really optimistic view. What the facts show is 3 straight years of terrible Baseball without adding 1 piece to help in the future. Victorino trade Pence trade netted zero help. Not 1 player to look forward to in 2015 added. Same group making decisions, over 1million lost seats in stands costing over $120 million. Adding some scout from the Braves gives me zero solace. There is no need more in need and capable o taking risk on Tomas, but they whiffed.

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  25. Tomas basically signed a 4 year deal, that’s certainly one of the reasons the Phils were out on him. We don’t need him to leave as soon as we get good and I do think it could take 4 more years. The Phils wanted a 6 yr deal but the agent reduced the term because no one offered them enough money.

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    1. The agent reduced the term after the Stanton signing knowing that his client could get a $25+ million contract after four years if he plays his behind off and hits his ceiling.

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    2. Strangely, of all the excuses RAJ made for the non-signing, that wasn’t one of them. Bloggers seemed to come up with the structure of the contract as the reason, but the Phillies don’t seem to have put that out there.

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      1. What Rube said was nonsense. “who says we are looking for power, We have a long term plan and we are sticking to it. We are in the market for Pitching.” Please!, 3 straight terrible years without a single long-term piece being added, Zilch from trades, International signings, Rule v, guy coming off injury, whatever you want to name. Cuba, Japan, Outer Mongolia, nothing. Which team is in most need of a fortunate move and can most afford to be wrong? The Phils, I don’t know if Tomas is good or not, but they were in on him until the end according to Rube. They had contact that day, he said. So, if he can help you, then do what it takes to sign him when you have the financial resources of the Phils.

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        1. Read were the Giants were second in on Tomas after the D-backs……what do the Giants and Sabean know anyway!
          At approx. $11M AAV , Dave Stewart should feel minimal cognizant dissonance with this signing.

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      2. Teams will not put it out there but his agent did a great job with the contract.

        Teams wanted to lock him up through his prime years and his agent said no. If he works out he gets serious money in four years; if not, he has enough to live on for the rest of his life.

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  26. The Phillies are not cheap, that’s just not true. Have they spent their money wisely? Of course not. Have they traded well? God no! Can the same management team be trusted to right the ship now?? Time will tell….

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    1. The Phillies aren’t cheap at the major league level in what they offer to established vets. They truly are among the very cheapest teams in baseball, when it comes to their valuation of and what they are prepared to acquire talent without MLB experience. Most teams recognize that the draft is a good bargain. RAJ is the only GM I’ve read a comment from saying that he didn’t view the draft as a good value. The Phillies were kind of allergic to large international bonuses, when they were totally un-regulated. They’ve foolishly demanded major-league-ready talent in trades, valuing immediate proximity over potential, and leading to bust trades for Schill, Lee, Pence, and Victorino. They hold prospects is about as low a regard as any team in baseball. So no, not overall cheap, but really, really cheap when it comes to non-major-leaguers.

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  27. We react to every Phillies’ transaction because we’re fans, and that’s what fans do.

    The important vote, however, will be in April, just as the 2015 season begins. Let’s see what happens between now and then w/r/t international signings and trades.

    For the record, I was unimpressed by the Phils’ moves before 2012, 2013 and 2014. If Montgomery returns and we see another Beavis-and-Butthead re-run, I expect to be unimpressed with this off-season as well. If the same people are making the decisions, why should we expect different results? (OTOH, if Gillick is in charge, I would expect better.)

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  28. Keith Law felt the Phillies should not have signed Tomas because he feels his most productive years will be the first 3. He feels they need to not only get younger but cheaper as well and emphasizing OBP and defense.

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    1. Does he explain why he believes that. His 4th year will be at age 27. It seems strange to expect him to be declining that quickly. If he is going to be a quick big bang and then decline, the 6-year deal with the player opt-out may be a more attractive contract than it appears at first glance.

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      1. I guess I’m also not sure why he thinks they must get cheaper. The big contracts are leaving quite soon and we are a high revenue team. The AAV of the Tomas deal wasn’t that steep, if he’s good. From the way you wrote that comment, it doesn’t sound like Keith is expecting that Tomas will be a flop.

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        1. No he doesn’t, he thought he would be ML average with 25-30 HRs. What the D-Backs needed, just not what the Phillies should be investing in as his best years would be when they would be battling for 4th place.

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      2. He doesn’t say specifically but earlier in the article he mentions seeing him in 2013 and that he was out of shape and looked like a DH. Maybe that is what he envisions his 4-6 years of the contract will be.

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  29. Why are we making excuses now?? I didn’t see anyone saying not to sign him before Arizona did? I will take 25 homeruns and below average d in left for that contract. ALL of a sudden he is fat, cant throw, all the excuses in the world. The Phillies must be paying people to post this stuff after they screw up.

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  30. You can go back and read my previous comments and you’ll see I was on board to sign him. What he signed for would have made it easier to swollow bu

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  31. I think it’s interesting that he signed with the Diamondbacks. There were a ton of teams in on him and in the end, no one wanted to pony up the big bucks. The fact that it went to to 6 for $68 mil makes me wonder if a lot of teams soured on him and the Dbacks were the ones who took the chance. Weren’t the Braves and Giants all in on him as well?

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    1. Giants were second according to reports and agent Alou.
      And they have lots of money to spend with losing out on Sandoval to the Sox.

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  32. That is where I part ways with Keith Law. How about that Tomas gives the fans someone to come see play for the next 3 years vs. what we have now? And, how is 25-30 HRS an average player? And, if he is really good, then you sign him again. What about the 4th year of the contract? And who cares about them being cheaper? For what? OBP and D are great, but how aboutthat the # 1 objective should be the accumulation of talent. A RH hitting power hitter is a talent that is not in much supply. And, again, the team that needs to take a risk and is most able to afford to be wrong, is the Phils

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      1. If the Phillies go out and sign Moncada….all is forgiven
        Understand the penalty could restrict their International signings to $300k and below for two years…..but what the heck……they usually have only signed one or two players per year at more than that amount for only the last 3 years.
        And with the new guy at the helm for international and domestic affairs…..he should be able to scout out pretty good players for that amount.

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        1. The Phillies won’t sign Moncada. Do you REALLY believe there is even a remote chance that the Phillies will lay out the $$, penalty $, and put up their hand as having shattered their international allocation. I certainly don’t.

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          1. Time to think positive waves…no more negative waves.

            As Oddball says to Moriarty: “Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don’t you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don’t you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? Moriarty: Crap!
            Oddball: Crazy! I mean like so many positive waves maybe we can’t lose! “

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  34. He has the power to hit that many but that doesn’t mean he will. He’s not going to make enough contact to hit 30 HRs. Put it this way he’s a lesser Marlon Byrd with a lot less D. That’s my opinion on him at least. To me not a big deal that we didn’t sign him.

    On a side note everyone assumes that he wanted or would play here. Maybe he just wasn’t interested in playing for the Phillies. We’ll never know what both sides actually think and felt.

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    1. We know the Phillies talked of needing to make moves before we could sign him. We know they made a lot of malarkey excuses after they failed to sign him. I think it’s wrong to call him a lesser Byrd. For one thing, Byrd 2015 is likely a lesser Byrd than Byrd 2014 and Byrd 2016 is likely cooked. The scouting reports suggest Tomas will hit .250-.260 with 25-30 HR, less in year one. He is described as a surprisingly good runner for his size and a guy with an average arm and ok corner OF D. One of the scouts quoted in an article thought he could play 3B. The Phillies saw him in a group workout and a private workout and initially described him as a perfect fit for the Phillies, a middle of the lineup corner OF. Reports are he can play RF and isn’t limited to LF.

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  35. Eric I am interested. You make a statement HE IS A LESSER MARLON BYRD. how do you know that. Did you ever see him play. just curious.

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    1. I’ve seen about 30 ABs which is obviously a SSS and read a ton of scouting report. That is just the what i get from what I saw and heard, that he’s a lesser MB (and when I say that I mean of the past 2 years not the future MB).
      The past year; .264/.312/.445 25HR 85RBI 185 K
      so if i’m talking a lesser Byrd i’m thinking .250/.305/.415 20HR 70 RBI with close to 200K. Is that absurd to think thats what he could put up? You can look at his numbers in the past to see that he strikesout a lot, the pitching is only going to get better against him and smarter as well. Also “he runs suprisingly well for his size”, he is still below average in terms of speed, who cares if he runs well for his size, slow is slow. I just don’t think he is an impact player. Would he be a nice piece, maybe but not an impact player. Again that’s just my opinion.

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      2. I agree with you Eric D. His swing and miss potential could be high.
        As a note…Dave Stewart of the D-back, must see him strictly as a LF as Inciarte between him and Peralta (RF). And he is the righthanded power bat they and most teams are looking for.

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    1. We are now not interested and more interested in infield prospects.

      Need to get ready to jump to the next boat.

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  37. For me, the truly disappointing aspect of this is that signing Tomas seemed to be the springboard for other moves. The question becomes where do we go from here. Trading Marlon Byrd for a few mid level prospects and rationalizing bringing back Howard because his family problems were a distraction last season isn’t good enough. I don’t think that they will trade Hamels, but that is simply my hunch. Another year of waiting out bad contracts (Howard, Papelbon and Cliff Lee) won’t cut it.

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    1. Maybe JRoll will relinquish his no-trade clause to go to his home-town where his parents and family are, if the A’s would also need a shortstop until their prospect Dan Robertson is ready.
      What can get in return?
      Pitching…maybe a Seth Streich as a mid-rotation guy.

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      1. I agree with you Romus but I think it is more myth that he would like to play on the West Coast. I think we under estimate the roots that he has put down here in Philly.

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  38. It continues to get worse. We started the off-season with little hope, but thought, maybe Hamels brings a haul, something of value could be gotten for Byrd, sign Tomas, but now I am devoid of hope. Not sure Tomas was going to be all that, but wanted to roll the dice. Now feelnHamels doesn’t move and Byrd brings zip

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  39. I for one didn’t like the idea of Tomas at $100M Plus but now that I see the deal I am disappointed even with an opt out clause. Having said that there is always the issue of where the player wants to play so who knows.

    It is only Dec 1 and many teams further along then the Phillies still have a bunch of work to do. What we know is that the Red Sox are really thin on starting pitching with an option to spend big to get it or trade for it.

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  41. I did not re-up my partial season tickets for this coming season. Philies will be really bad for the foreseeable future, with no prospects other than J.P Crawford, and a lineup full of over the hill players. The only reason the Phillies did not sign Tomas (despite Amaro’s transparent smokescreen that they question his defensive skills) was Phillies would not match AZ’s 4 yr. opt out, as they wanted to tie him up for at least the full 6 yrs. Gillick has already admitted that they will not compete until at least 2018-2019. [I think it will be longer than that.] and if Tomas performs well between now and then, he can become a free agent, To me, it was small minded thinking on Amaro’s part. He’ll only be 28 at the time, and If he is that good over the next four years, it could be worth it to bid for his services then. But unless the “braintrust” thinks the Phillies are close to winning a championship at that time, which they know they won’t be, they’re not going to get in a bidding war for Tomas in 4 years. Sure, it would have been a risk to outbid AZ for Tomas, but even if Phiilies also gave him a 4 yr opt out, it would have at least been something to look forward to. Most scouts think by his second year, he could be a .265-.280 hitter, with 25 HR’s and 100 RBI’s and possibly better than that. A couple scouts think he could be worse, but considering what else the Phiilies have, it would have been worth the risk. He’s certainly an upgrade over Brown, Revere, and a 36 yr old Byrd, though I realize that’s not saying much. The sad thing about the Phiilies compared to the Sixers, is that Phillies management, principally Ruben Amaro, is actually trying to field a winning team.

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