Yesterday, I talked about how Sean Newcomb has fared with the Cubs since the Braves traded him earlier in the season. Today, I wanted to take a look at another Braves farmhand that never lived up to expectations, Touki Toussaint, who was somewhat surprisingly designated for assignment in July.
Like Newcomb, Toussaint was a former first-round pick that the Braves traded for early on in his minor-league career. They were actually taken in back-to-back drafts — Toussaint in ’14 and Newcomb in ’15. Despite that, Toussaint is three years younger because he was drafted out of high school, which is why it was a little shocking the Braves gave up on him so quickly.
Still just 26 years old, Toussaint was scooped up by the Angels after he was released, which can be looked at as a positive and a negative. On the one hand, the Angels don’t have any high-quality pitching, so there will be opportunities aplenty. On the other hand, there is a reason they don’t have any good pitchers. The Angels are notoriously abysmal at developing their arms, so Toussaint will deserve all the credit if he figures it out in Los Angeles.
In early August, Touki Toussaint received his first major-league opportunity with the Angels organization, and it’s gone a lot like it did with the Braves. There’s been some good, but overall, it’s been plagued with inconsistency. He’s made a couple of starts and several long relief appearances, posting a 4.94 ERA. His best outing, though, came last time out against the Yankees, in which he completed five shutout innings of one-hit ball.
The frustrating thing about guys like Newcomb and Toussaint is that it’s never been about talent. At any given moment, they’ve proven capable of completely dominating the best hitters on the planet. It just shows the fine line between being a household name and a fringe roster candidate. The promising thing about Toussaint is he’s still just 26 years old. We’ve watched Kyle Wright go from underwhelming farmhand to established ace overnight at the same age. Sometimes a couple of tweaks is all it takes, and Toussaint has plenty of time to figure things out.
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