Will Yasmany Tomas Be MLB's Next Instant Impact Cuban Star?

The Arizona Diamondbacks aren't the flashiest team in the National League West.

They don't have the Los Angeles Dodgers' gaudy payroll or the San Francisco Giants' bulging trophy case. And they didn't steamroll through the offseason with a series of blockbuster, roster-upending moves like the San Diego Padres.

Still, there is at least one reason to train your focus on the D-backs in 2015, and his name is Yasmany Tomas.

The Tomas hype peaked in early December, when Arizona signed the 24-year-old Cuban to a six-year, $68.5 million deal. 

He's since been overshadowed by his 19-year-old countryman, Yoan Moncada, who, according to MLB.com's Jesse Sanchez, received a record-shattering $31.5 million bonus from the Boston Red Sox in February.

Moncada is expected to marinate in the minors while Tomas should break camp with the Diamondbacks, possibly as their everyday third baseman.

Whether "possibly" turns to "certainly" will depend on how he handles the position. 

Tomas played mostly outfield with the Industriales of the Cuban National Series, but Arizona is hoping to stick him at the hot corner. So far, it's a work in progress.

Here's manager Chip Hale's assessment, per MLB.com's Steve Gilbert:

"

I think he needs to be better than what we've seen. Mostly just the focus. I think the plays he's not making is because maybe he loses focus. He needs to know that every play at third base, every pitch he's got to be ready. So if we see that, I think the physical part of it—catching the ball and moving to the ball—I think he can do it.

"

Tomas himself admitted the transition was initially "difficult," per AZCentral.com's Nick Piecoro and Zach Buchanan.

Of course, Arizona didn't target Tomas for his glove. The hope is that he can be the latest Cuban to rake MLB pitching, joining forces with All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and outfielder Mark Trumbo to form a fearsome middle of the order.

"Obviously, I was with Yoenis Cespedes when he came to Oakland," Hale told Sanchez (Hale was the A's bench coach from 2012 to 2014). "Now, we're hoping Tomas can do the same thing for us." 

Cespedes is one name. Yasiel Puig and Jose Abreu are two others. Add them up, and you have three dynamite big league debuts. 

Name	Debut age/Year	AVG	HR	WAR
Yoenis Cespedes	26 yrs./2012	.292	23	3.9
Yasiel Puig	22 yrs./2013	.319	19	4.9
Jose Abreu	27 yrs./2014	.317	36	5.5

Will Tomas be the next to blow up? It's possible. In 150 games with the Industriales between 2011 and 2012, he smacked 31 home runs. And in 2013, he hit .375 with a pair of round-trippers in the World Baseball Classic. 

"He's got a ton of power," the Red Sox's Rusney Castillo, who played with Tomas in Cuba, told WEEI.com's Rob Bradford.  

On the other hand, Baseball America's Ben Badler noted in June:

"

This past season in Cuba, which ended with Industriales losing in the semifinals in April, Tomas seemed to regress, even losing playing time in the second half, which one source said was the result of an arm injury he sustained crashing into an outfield wall in February. He finished the season at .290/.346/.450 with six home runs, 21 walks and 46 strikeouts in 257 plate appearances.

"

So there are positive signs, a few red flags and a whole host of questions. Really, even if Tomas doesn't hit right away, there's ample time for him to develop into a valuable major leaguer.

He's locked up through his age-29 season, and the D-backs are in the midst of a (sort of) rebuild. They can afford to be patient. 

But the bar has been set, and set high, by the Cespedes/Puig/Abreu troika. Castillo, too, lit it up in his limited audition last season with Boston, collecting 12 hits, including a pair of home runs, in 10 September games.

Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

Other Cuban hitters have taken longer to develop, of course. The Los Angeles Dodgers inked infielder Alex Guerrero to a four-year, $28 million pact in 2013, and he spent most of last season in Triple-A.

But the big names, the instant successes, are the ones that stick out in the casual fan's mind. They're the obvious comps for Tomas—and they're the standard he'll be held to, fair or not.

Add the pressure of learning a new position and adjusting to a new life in a new land, and it's possible Tomas will stumble at least a little out of the gate.

Then again, it's also possible he'll belt baseballs into the stratosphere against the league's elite pitchers. In fact, Tomas did just that on Tuesday, smacking an opposite-field bomb off Oakland right-hander Sonny Gray.

It was Tomas' first home run in a D-backs uniform. Whatever track his career takes from here, it's a safe bet it won't be his last.

All statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.