Phillies need to sign Cuban star Tomas

PHOENIX - It's the one move that would excite the masses even at a time when the Phillies have admitted that they are willing to take a step back in an effort to move forward. Sign Cuban outfielder Yasmany Tomas and the Phillies would be sending the message that they are all in on the younger-is-better plan.

Here's the problem: It could cost as much as $100 million to get the deal done and that's a lot of money for a guy who has never played a game in the major leagues. It is, in fact, $64 million more than the Oakland Athletics paid Yeonis Cespedes. It is $58 million more than the Los Angeles Dodgers paid Yasiel Puig. It is $32 million more than the Chicago White Sox paid slugger Jose Abreu.

Maybe Tomas, who turns 24 later this month, does not need or get $100 million to sign, but all indications are he is going to get more than all of the above Cubans, who have created a big-league buzz by experiencing immediate success after defecting from their communist island country 110 miles south of Key West, Fla.

Jay Alou, the agent for Tomas, was at the general managers meetings Monday selling hard the attributes of his power-hitting client, and it's clear he'd love to sell them to the Phillies. When general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. returned from watching some of the Phillies' prospects in an Arizona Fall League game late in the afternoon, Alou was there to greet him.

Earlier in the day, the agent had a more formal meeting with Amaro and he later described the Phillies as one of the front-runners to land his client.

"We continue to speak," Alou said. "I know they have things in-house they want to take care of. We've been talking. I respect Ruben a lot and he respects me."

Alou even used the sales pitch that the Phillies owe it to their fans to make an offer, which is not a bad one to use on a team that just lost 89 games for the second straight year and finished last in the National League East for the first time since 2000.

"With the way home runs are going, this is a guy who can hit 40," Alou said. "He can miss balls and hit them out."

That's not scientifically possible, but the agent was on a roll and nobody was going to stop him.

"Tomas is a very impressive hitter," Alou said. "A lot of hitters have to pull the ball to generate power. He has so much power he can hit the ball out to right field and center field. I represent Jose Bautista and he hits a lot of home runs. I've never seen a guy hit them as far [as Tomas]."

Amaro was willing to talk about Cubans in general, but not Tomas in particular.

"Just because one guy did well when he was signed from one country doesn't necessarily mean the next guy is going to do well," Amaro said. "It's all individual. We'll try to scout the players and try to project them in a way that you feel necessary and go from there."

The Phillies have scouted Tomas as much as any big-league team and it is well documented that they are impressed by his power even though he is considered a mediocre defensive corner outfielder.

It should be at least a little alarming, however, that despite all the success of the three Cuban players mentioned above, two of them have also had their share of problems. Puig has immense talent, but he lacks great baseball instincts, a fact that has tested Dodgers manager Don Mattingly's patience. When the Dodgers were trying to stay alive in their division series with St. Louis last month, Mattingly decided his best move would be to sit Puig. It was probably a stupid move, but it was also a telling one.

Cespedes, meanwhile, was traded from Oakland to Boston in the middle of last season and now there are rumblings he could be moved by the Red Sox. He reportedly does not want to move to right field, where Boston feels it could best use his superhuman arm, and neither his on-base percentage (.301) nor his OPS (.751) was all that impressive in 2014.

Amaro is correct that each Cuban player, like each player from every country, needs to be judged individually, and the Phillies will have to decide if they want to invest a small fortune on Tomas.

The general manager later talked extensively about how Domonic Brown, the man who started 117 games in left field for the Phillies last season, needs a longer look.

"We know he has the ability to do it," Amaro said. "It's just a matter of him being able to make the adjustments. Sometimes you have to be patient with guys. Some guys don't get there all the time, but he has a chance to be very good. He has proven it. He has done it at the major-league level. Has he done it for a sustained period of time? No. And is it a slam dunk that he will? Absolutely not. But I think when you have a guy with that kind of talent you have to be somewhat patient with him."

Signing Yasmany Tomas would be a much easier sell for the general manager and the best way for the Phillies to start their rebuilding project.

@brookob