The Diamondbacks show they clearly want nothing to do with Yasmany Tomas by sending him down to the minors

Even with Steven Souza on the DL, Tomas has been optioned to the minors

By Matt Snyder

Mar 25, 2018 at 1:07 pm ET • 1 min read

With the Major League Baseball season opening in just a few days, we're right in the midst of "final cutdown day" territory. We'll see teams trim their rosters to 25, making decisions at the back-end of their rosters and sometimes surprising us slightly. Generally speaking, we don't get huge takeaways.

The Diamondbacks sent outfielder Yasmany Tomas to the minors, though, and I have a takeaway: They very clearly want nothing to do with him. At least not until something drastic changes.

Tomas, 27, was signed out of Cuba prior to the 2015 season to a six-year, $68.5 million deal. It's backloaded, too, so Tomas is still due $46 million over the course of the next three seasons, culminating with a $17 million salary in 2020.

In 2015, Tomas hit .273/.305/.401 (88 OPS+). Not awful for a 24-year-old moving to a new country and culture. The 17 walks against 110 strikeouts in 406 at-bats were concerning, as was the bad defense.

Then, in 2016, Tomas hit 31 homers with a .272/.313/.508 line. Sure, it wasn't outstanding with a 108 OPS+ and his bad defense actually dragged him down to a negative WAR (-0.5), but there was at least a workable skill there with the power.

Last year, though, Tomas hit just .241/.294/.464/87 OPS+ in 180 plate appearances. He clearly fell out of favor.

This past offseason, the D-Backs lost J.D. Martinez to free agency, but they also swung a trade for Steven Souza. Oh, and Tomas got arrested for reckless driving.

With Souza (RF) alongside holdovers David Peralta (LF) and A.J. Pollock (CF), it was clear heading toward the season Tomas wouldn't be a regular starter. The presence of newly-signed Jarrod Dyson also meant Tomas likely wouldn't be the fourth outfielder (and, really, a fourth outfielder should be a good defender).

Souza is hurt and will open the season on the DL. Tomas was still sent down to the minors.

Given all the information we have, it's clear the D-Backs want nothing to do with Tomas. They can't really trade him, either, given his contract and terrible track record to date. It's not surprising they don't want to just release him, due to the contract. As such, they are simply just stuck with him.