Back in December, Cuban outfielder Dian Toscano agreed to sign with the Atlanta Braves, but nothing was official and the financial details weren't disclosed. That all changed on Wednesday when the team announced the move.
According to the team's twitter account, the Braves and Toscano agreed to a four-year major league contract with a fifth-year club option for the 2019 season. The initial news of their deal with the Cuban outfielder was first reported by Baseball America's Ben Badler back in December. According to Mark Bowman of MLB.com, Toscano will make $6 million over the next four seasons and his 2019 option has a buyout for $1.5 million.
Here's what Badler wrote about the 25-year-old in December:
"Playing for Villa Clara in Serie Nacional, Toscano batted .356/.400/.452 in 86 plate appearances with eight walks and eight strikeouts in 2012-13, his last season in Cuba. The year before, Toscano hit .287/.438/.380 with 35 walks and 16 strikeouts. He hit just three home runs that year and never showed much power in Cuba, though he's in significantly better shape and has increased his strength since leaving Cuba."
Atlanta was linked to Yasmany Tomas, another Cuban outfielder, earlier in the offseason and manager Fredi Gonzalez, bench coach Carlos Tosca and hitting coach Kevin Seitzer traveled to the Dominican Republic back in November to watch Tomas and Toscana in a number of workouts. Tomas ended up signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks for six years and $68.5 million, while the Braves will pay $7.5 million for Toscano over the next five seasons.
"He hits and throws left-handed and could help the Braves in 2015 as a fourth or fifth outfielder or perhaps in a larger role in left field, although the plan is to start him out at Triple-A Gwinnett to get more seasoning after not playing much in the past year," writes David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Scouts have said Toscano has enough speed to play center field and the Braves want to see him in that role during spring training. After all, if he proves capable, the team would probably consider starting Toscano over current center fielder B.J. Upton, who is owed $46.35 million over the next three seasons and has batted just .198/.279/.314 with 21 home runs and 61 RBIs in two seasons (267 games) with Atlanta.
