21, 1998, he started his minor league career with the Cleveland Indians in 2016. On July 30, 2021, the Indians sent Diaz to the Astros for Myles Straw.
Straw has gone on to pretty good things with the Indians/Guardians, totaling 5.6 bWAR in his three seasons with the team. Diaz took a little longer, going one-for-eight in six games to close out the 2022 season.
In Spring Training 2023, Diaz set himself apart from fellow number-one-in-training backstop Korey Lee, and started the season with Houston on their major-league roster. On June 15, he came in and hit a game-tying RBI-single in the bottom of the ninth, in an eventual 4-1 loss to the Washington
Nationals. Three days later, he hit a first-inning single, reached on a third-inning error, added a fourth-inning RBI-double, then hit a single in the ninth in a 9-7 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. On July 5, Diaz hit a pair of home runs with three RBI in a 6-4 win against the Colorado Rockies. On July 24, he hit a game-tying RBI-sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth, then drove home the walkoff game-winner with an RBI-single to score Kyle Tucker in a 10-9 barnburner against the Texas Rangers.
Diaz started 85 times for Houston through his rookie campaign, finishing with 26 multiple hit games. Despite his status as the “backup” catcher, Diaz ranked fourth on the team with 23 home runs and second on the team with in SLG, slashing .282/.308/.538 with 22 doubles. He drew 11 walks, scored 51 times, and drove in 60, also striking out 74 times.
iaz’ output was hampered by sporadic starts behind the plate. He only caught in 52 of them, appearing as the designated hitter 38 times. As a catcher, he slashed .324/.353/.648 versus a .213/.247/.346 mark as a DH. I don’t know if a 1.001 OPS (as a catcher) will translate over a full season, but 187 plate appearances isn’t really that small a sample size.
Defensively, Diaz fielded at .986 over 399 innings at the backstop, a FP+ of 57, and threw out 30 percent of basestealers — a CS+ of 143. In the offseason, he was one-for-14, but started zero times at catcher. Dusty Baker swore we would thank him one day, so thank you Dusty Baker.
B/R is bearish on Diaz’ 2024 projection. They have him at .276/.321/.510 with 20 home runs in 389 plate appearances. Fangraphs has him at .273/.312/.489 with 22 homers in 441 PA, and Steamer has an identical slashline projection and 21 homers in 421 PA.
341. Roberto Osuna (Bagwell score 96.16) is a six-foot-two right-handed pitcher from Juan Jose Rios, MX. Born on February 7, 1995, he began his major league career with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2016, and played three-and-a-half seasons with the club (8-13, 2.87, 223 IP, 253 K). In May 2018, he was arrested for domestic violence, and was suspended for 75 games.
