Outstanding Organization Pitching Instructors Can Help Cleveland Guardians’ Touki Toussaint

The Cleveland Guardians are known for outstanding organizational pitching instruction.

In an interesting move, the Guardians have signed right-hander Touki Toussaint to a minor league contract. Toussaint has been invited to spring training.

If any club can help Toussaint rejuvenate his career, it is Cleveland.

Now 26, Toussaint is the type of player that may thrive under the direction of the highly regarded Cleveland Guardians pitching development program.

Who Is Touki Toussaint?

The Cleveland organization has long given pitchers they deem undervalued an opportunity to pitch on a minor league contract. Many are invited to spring training to see if they can retire major league hitters. Many, if not most, are looking to revive a stalled career.

Throughout their organization, Cleveland’s pitching coaches are superb. They have a history of refining pitching mechanics and developing some of the best pitchers in baseball.

Dany Gilbert Kiti “Touki” Toussaint was born and grew up in Pembroke Pines, Florida. He is of Haitian and Kenyan descent.

Toussaint’s family moved to Haiti when Touki was three months old. He and his mother returned to Florida when Touki was six.

At 6-3, 215 pounds, Toussaint has always been known as a pitcher with a strong, and powerful arm .

Touki Toussaint was a 1st round selection of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2014 draft.

Selected out of Coral Springs Christian Academy in Florida with the No. 16 overall pick, Toussaint was given a $2.7M signing bonus by Arizona,. That was $361,800 above the MLB recommended amount for that slot.

In 2014, at the age of 18, Toussaint played for the Diamondbacks Rookie level teams. He threw 28.2 innings.

The following year, Toussaint started the season with the Diamondbacks Class-A team, but he was traded to the Atlanta Braves on June 20, 2015. On his birthday, the Diamondbacks traded Toussaint and pitcher Bronson Arroyo to the Braves for infielder Phil Gosselin.

In July 2022, the Los Angeles Angels purchased Toussaint from the Braves.

The Guardians signed Toussaint to his current minor league deal January 4, 2023.

To date, Toussaint has not realized the pitching potential most scouts and analysts projected when Toussaint was drafted.

However, Toussaint now may be able to resurrect his career with the help of the Guardians outstanding organizational pitching staff.

Toussaint made his major league debut with the Braves on August 13, 2018. Having just turned 24, Toussaint went six innings against the Miami Marlins. He yielded just two hits and one earned run. He got the win.

Since his debut, Toussaint has thrown in 57 big league games, with 23 coming as a starter. He has pitched 170.1 big league innings.

There is plenty of “life” left on Toussaint’s right arm.

When he was still a rookie, Toussaint showed tremendous promise. He had one of the best and most highly regarded arms in his draft class.

At the time he was traded to the Braves, Toussaint relied heavily on his mid-90’s fastball, and highly regarded curveball, as the two most polished pitches in his repertoire.

In 2022, brooksbaseball.net listed Toussaint’s four-seam fastball at 93.57 miles per hour. That was just a tick down from his fastball velocity back in 2018.

Toussaint also throws a sinking, two-seam fastball at 92.54 miles per hour, along with a curveball and splitter.

Also according to brooksbaseball,net Toussaint uses his four-seam fastball 25.6%, his sinker 35.2%, and his curveball, 24% of the time. His split is the least used pitch in his repertoire, as he used it only 15.2% last season.

This scout’s first evaluation of Toussaint came in the 2017 Arizona Fall League, when he played for Peoria as part of the Braves contingent.

At the time, Toussaint looked like a raw, inexperienced “thrower” as opposed to a pitcher. One could see the talent and the “electric” arm, but at the time, Toussaint simply had not mastered anything close to good pitching mechanics. He had poor command and poor control.

Toussaint struck out 14 hitters that fall, but in his 8.2 innings, he also walked seven.

He worked only in relief. That wasn’t the role this scout had projected for him. He looked like he should be developing as a starting pitcher, not as a reliever.

That fall, the report written by this scout regarding Toussaint stated, “Terrific arm with upside as a swing-and miss type starter. Has to command his fastball and learn to pitch and not throw. Wicked curve could be his “out” pitch, once he finds command and control. Has to find a third pitch. Capable of missing bats and racking up strikeouts. But work on his delivery is the top priority. Electric arm.”

Fast forward to 2022, and Toussaint has not really found consistent command and control. The same wildness issues this scout saw prominently in 2017 have followed Touki in his career.

In fact, he has walked an average of 5.5 hitters per nine innings in his 170.1 career innings pitched. He has struck out 9.6 hitters per nine.

Toussaint has appeared in 57 major league games, with only 23 of them coming as a starter.

Toussaint’s Future:

The Cleveland Guardians could reap a huge reward if they can harness Toussaint’s talent, and refine his delivery enough to help him improve his command and control. The risk the Guardians have taken with Toussaint is minimal.

Still only 26, the Guardians will be able to work with a pitcher who has less wear and tear on his arm and body than most professional pitchers his age.

To this scout, Toussaint still has enough potential remaining to be a quality addition to the Cleveland Guardians organizational pitching staff. He could help the big league club at some point.

Through the years, because of their success, Cleveland has lost some of their best and brightest organizational pitching instructors to other MLB organizations.

So well regarded is Cleveland’s stable of pitching coaches at every level, it is not uncommon for the team to replace important coaches annually. However, they have a knack for finding high quality replacements.

For this scout, it is the prominence of the Guardians pitching program, along with the pure talent and arm of Touki Toussaint that has this scout optimistic about the potential for Toussaint to flourish going forward. His future could be bright.

No MLB team has enough pitching depth. Teams always look for pitching. And then more pitching.

As they should, the Cleveland Guardians place a tremendous priority on developing pitchers.

Touki Toussaint, once a promising right-hander with a big arm could be getting a great opportunity to resurrect a mediocre career with his invitation to spring training from the Cleveland Guardians.