The Cuban Pipeline: Jose Abreu Today, Yasmani Tomas Tomorrow

The leading slugger in the major leagues last season was Jose Abreu, a rookie first baseman from Cuba whose six-year, $68 million contract was thought to be a reach for the owner of the Chicago White Sox.

'The person who deserves the most credit is Jerry Reinsdorf, who didn't throw us out of his office for advocating approaching $70 million for a player who's never played in the States before - and a record for the White Sox,' General Manager Rick Hahn said at U.S. Cellular Field early last season.

'Some of the conversation we had with Jerry centered around the fact that it's a risk, but given where the current market is for players, roughly $11 million a year doesn't carry with it the need to be a superstar. That is the going rate for a very solid player.'

The White Sox got much better than solid. Abreu batted .317 with a .383 on-base percentage and a major-league-best .581 slugging percentage. He also hit 36 home runs with 107 runs batted in, and on Monday was expected to be named the American League rookie of the year.

The impact of that performance extended far beyond Chicago. Abreu was the latest, and best, example of a Cuban free agent making a quick transition to major league stardom, at a reasonable price. In an industry awash with revenue - but always looking for bargains - the secret is out.

Abreu's deal had exceeded those for outfielders Yoenis Cespedes (four years, $36 million with Oakland in February 2012) and Yasiel Puig (seven years, $42 million in June 2012), and another outfielder, Rusney Castillo, topped Abreu in August. Castillo, who signed with Boston for seven years and $72.5 million, hit .333 with two homers in 10 September games.

The next to cash in - and probably for more than Castillo - will be Yasmani Tomas, a right-handed-hitting outfielder who is drawing attention from 12 teams, according to his agent, Jay Alou.

'He's a very powerful and exciting player,' Alou said Monday. 'He plays like Ken Griffey Jr. used to play, with a big old smile. On off-days, he's out playing stickball with kids. He loves to play, and he probably has more power than anybody I've seen in a long time - a very balanced swing with power to all fields.'

Tomas, who turns 24 this month, defected in June to Haiti and worked out for all teams in September in the Dominican Republic. In 205 games in Cuba for the Havana Industriales, he hit 30 home runs with 104 runs batted in. He was 6 for 16 with two homers in the 2013 World Baseball Classic and is also considered to have above-average speed.

From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, most of the high-impact Cuban defectors were pitchers, including Livan and Orlando Hernandez, Rolando Arrojo, Danys Baez and Jose Contreras. In the last decade, more Cuban position players have come to the majors and thrived.

'This new class is very powerful, and they've proven that with their production,' said one scout who has seen Tomas play. 'That's what's impressed a lot of people about Tomas. He played in the same group as Abreu, Puig and those kinds of guys, and he's in that class. He played with them and produced at that level. A lot of teams see Abreu, Puig and Cespedes, and they want that - and, plus, he's only 23 or 24.'

The scout, who was granted anonymity to conceal his team's interest level, said Cuban players still carried plenty of risk because scouts can rarely see them against top competition. But with power waning in the majors, the chance to sign a home run hitter without surrendering a draft pick is enticing.

'It's so hard to find power, and to find immediate power is even harder,' the scout said. 'When you do it in free agency, you're paying a lot of money to those guys. Look at what Curtis Granderson got, at that age.'

Granderson, who turns 34 in March, signed a four-year, $60 million deal last December with the Mets, who lost their second-round draft pick to sign him. Granderson hit 20 homers with a .227 average, and the Mets are now moving in some of their fences.

Tomas projects as a right fielder - although Alou said he could play any outfield spot, or either infield corner - and would seem to be a good fit for the Mets. But they have played down expectations for a splashy addition and on Monday they signed 35-year-old Michael Cuddyer, making any move for Tomas highly unlikely.

Tomas is a top target of the Philadelphia Phillies, and has also drawn interest from Arizona, Boston, San Diego and Texas, among others. He is listed at 6-foot-1 and about 230 pounds, and told Vice Sports' Jorge Arangure Jr. that, with his size, he probably would have played football if he had been born in the United States.

As a baseball player, he said, he was eager to challenge himself in the world's most competitive league and was not motivated by the chance to eclipse Castillo's deal.

'It's great to have that opportunity, but my objective has always been just to play baseball,' Tomas told Arangure. 'I love baseball. As a boy, I was always passionate about baseball. And I just want to keep playing and see what the possibilities can be. The money isn't necessarily going to be the most important thing I think about.'

But it will likely be significant, and for that, Tomas can thank his fellow slugging defectors, including Abreu.

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