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Was the Atlanta Braves’ Revolving Door in LF Sparked by Dian Toscano?

By Fletcher Batts

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Let’s play fantasy GM for a bit.

Rewind the clock to December 8, 2015 as the Atlanta Braves announced the signing of a young 26-year-old Cuban outfielder named Dian Toscano.

Initially when the story broke, most of us had the question “who?” But as you read about the kid you started to see that the club apparently had solid plans for him.

The Braves gave him a 4-year MAJOR LEAGUE deal valued at $6Mil. That isn’t a lot of money, but for a Cuban kid who hasn’t played the first HOUR in the majors, one would assume that this kid had to be special.

Let’s get the timelines together.

More from Tomahawk Take

Since the season ended the following took place up in reference to the Braves outfield:

…pause…

Why did it take them 7 weeks and 3 days to officially announce the move?

Apparently he agreed to sign the deal on 12/8/2014 but didn’t officially sign until 1/28/2015. In the meantime, the club is making all kinds of moves in the outfield to go AROUND him.

Spring Training Begins, still no Toscano

The team expected him to be in Spring Training and for him to be some sort of contributor in 2015 (but probably would have spent all year in Gwinnett or a minor league affiliate), but as Jeff reported, that has not been the case. Customs, paperwork issues, visas, whatever the case… he’s not on the field and I am looking at the moves from above and guessing that the club did not expect this thing to drag out as long as it has.

  • 03/20/2015: Toscano optioned to Gwinnett Braves. I am assuming that this was purely a roster move because there was still no appearance.
  • 04/04/2015: signed Adonis Garcia to a minor league contract
  • 04/05/2015: Joey Terdoslavich placed on the 15 day DL with sprained left wrist AND the club place Toscano on the restricted list

BOOM! There it is.

This was the proverbial throwing in the towel and no longer waiting for whatever legalities are presenting road blocks.

After 4 months, a dozen or so extra transactions and a few more roster moves up and down the minors, the team finally said “forget it, let’s move on”.

Knowing there was a glaring hole in the outfield and a desperate need to put an able body out there, the team had an opportunity to get rid of Melvin Upton Jr. AND fill that hole by acquiring Cameron Maybin along with LF Carlos Quentin, LF prospect Jordan Paroubeck and RHP Matt Wisler for Craig Kimbrel and BJ. On the surface, we all know this deal was more about BJ than it was Kimbrel, but it was also about Toscano and Maybin.

I don’t think this guy is a Maybin or has the complete skillset as Cameron but, what if? If he was on the field and healthy and playing for the club in Spring Training, do we sign Maybin?

Before this deal, we had Markakis in RF, EY Jr in Center and Gomes to platoon with “someone” in LF. Maybe that someone was supposed to be Toscano.

We don’t know.

Having whatever issues that obviously unexpectedly presented themselves has thrown the outfield demographics completely off. All things considered, with all players being healthy and producing as planned, we would not have had the need for at least three players to platoon with Gomes in LF in Kelly Johnson, Todd Cunningham and Terdoslavich. On the positive side, with him not here, we have had a revolving door in LF and multiple up-and-coming players in the minors have been auditioning for an outfield spot with the before mentioned Cunningham and Big JoeyT.  We’ve also seen highly regarded prospects in Mallex Smith and Jose Peraza try their hand at playing CF in Gwinnett.

I do not know what Toscano brings to the club. No one does.

Maybe he signs, hits the ground running and is a complete bust… NO ONE knows because he is NOT on the field.

What if we didn’t take our resources and sign him?

What if we had focused on someone else and offered them a contract?

One can only speculate and play the fantasy debate, but WHAT IF?

…we can only guess.

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