Hector Olivera To Play Winter League Ball

Jul 21, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; A baseball is shown on the infield during batting practice –

If you want tot see Toscano click this link

Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

Where have you gone Dian?

Toscano is the invisible player.  Last December the Braves signed the then 25 year old fourth outfielder to four year, $6M contract and immediately there were problems; specifically he couldn’t get into the country.

Fletcher gave the whole timeline in his piece in June but as a quick review:

• He agreed to sign in December
• Actually signed in January
• Was optioned to Gwinnett in March even though he wasn’t in country yet
• Placed on the restricted list in April

We’ll never know the ins and outs of that but while all the other Cuban defectors slipped straight in, received MLB clearance, signed and began working out Dian (or Dyan) didn’t pick up a glove in anger until the end of May.

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Success we screamed!!  Okay, maybe not but he was on the way; then nothing. In fact an abundance of nothing for the last four months. I thought maybe I’d been dreaming and  I’d wake up to see the Braves in the title hunt but alas, no such luck.  Even Ben Badler could only give a vague response.

So the only thing we know for certain is that he will play in Puerto Rico starting in December. . .IF he gets his bonus situation resolved.

What bonus situation? I have no idea.  One of my Twitter Critter pals suggested that it might be the $800K he was supposed to get when he arrived at spring training. Since he didn’t show up maybe the Braves didn’t pay when he hit Orlando.

If that’s the case and he refuses to go to the winter league because of it we could see the Braves try to void the contract of a player whom the emergence of Garcia probably makes redundant,

That’s A Wrap

There’s something extremely odd about the whole Toscano situation.  It didn’t take this long other Cuban defectors to get work permits and now that the process has been ‘eased’ after the change in our relationship with Cuba things should flow more quickly. Yet he’s lost out there in the ether somewhere around Orlando taking batting practice and playing in instructional league ball I guess.

I looked for a recent picture of him but didn’t find one I could use.  I did find one of him turning a double play this spring but when I looked at it the player was Pedro Ciriaco. As a mater of fact it seems to be a pretty common mistake as every image of a player supposed to be Toscano from our partners at USA Today is also a picture of Ciriaco.

Maybe the Braves media guide lists Toscano as number 13 or maybe Ciriaco has a great publicist who doesn’t proofread the captions. In any case the best I can do is link you to a picture of the phantom player.  Just so you know, Ciriaco looks nothing like Toscano.

Speaking of Pedro he’s starting at first tonight after Nick Swisher was scratched with a forearm strain. Ciriaco’s total game experience at first base came in 2013 when he stood there for three innings while a member of the Boston Red Sox.

In a related note Good luck to Shelby Miller tonight as he tries to break his winless streak with an outfielder (Garcia) playing third and a shortstop playing first.  Now if we can just get AJ to play center field. . .