The Marlins have inked a minors deal with righty Jumbo Diaz, according to SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (Twitter link). He’ll receive an invitation to participate in MLB camp.
Diaz, whose nickname aptly conveys his notable presence on the mound, has thrown 168 total MLB innings over the past four seasons. After three years with the Reds, he pitched last year for the Rays. In the aggregate, he owns a 4.02 ERA with 9.2 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9.
While Diaz cracked the active roster out of camp, and delivered his fastball with its typical zip, he was touched for 19 earned runs in thirty frames before being designated for assignment. At his best, Diaz generates a healthy volume of harmless infield pop-ups along with a decent number of swings and misses, though he sat at a below-average 10.4% swinging-strike rate (as against other relievers) in 2017.
For the rebuilding Marlins, players such as Diaz offer the possibility of useful output at a bargain price. It would appear that the 33-year-old has a solid shot at earning a roster spot in Spring Training.
I hate this offseason so much, you poor guys at mlbtr – no one should have to write up a post about Jumbo Diaz in 2018. No one.
lol for real
I’m guessing Diaz is not a Boras client.
I thought middlebrooks was the bottom. Now it’s a bad joke. Collusion isn’t as fun as I thought it would be. Damn.
It’s not collusion for teams to be using common sense.
letting money get in the way of upgrading your team is not the point of this game
I don’t think it’s about the money. It’s about the years.
Teams aren’t willing to guarantee the years these guys are after, and they aren’t in the business of giving fans an exciting off-season.
If 30 teams aren’t willing to give these players what they’re asking for, maybe the issue isn’t with the teams.
People don’t realize that baseball is also a business. There is nothing wrong with waiting out the market to drop get a better rate.
Except some players only get one chance to make real money.
Don’t be surprised when you start seeing gofundme’s for ex players who got screwed over by this tactic by the greedy owners who make wayyyy more money than any player does every year.
It’s still so wild to me that the average poster on here sides with owners over players and thinks that players getting “too much” money somehow “hurts” a team – newsflash – it actually doesn’t, it helps them win games. Heyward still helped the Cubs win more games and make the playoffs more than a combination of AAAA guys would have.
These are billionaires who just made record profits trying to screw their employees out of wages increases. They can call it sabermetrics front offices or whatever they want. It’s definitely collusion and probably going to cause a work stoppage in the near future if this continues.
How dare the owners achieve profit through their investment! Amirite?
I think you need to look up collusion in the dictionary !
I’m guessing he’s not related to Jumbo Tsuruta
When you sign a guy named jumbo, You got a franchise player here. Let’s rename the marlins to the jumbo marlins.
Oh and before I forget where’s the lamb sauce?
The Marlins bullpen currently has 2 Rule 5 picks in it so not many open spots out of camp unless one of them doesn’t make it or Ziegler or Tazawa is traded.
I’m really only left with 2 questions: Is his given name actually Jumbo and if so who names their kid Jumbo. At least the boy named Sue was named so the kid would be forced to toughen up.
Jose Rafael Diaz. Jumbo is a nickname
Thanks
Yes, that is correct. He got the nickname because one year in Dodgers spring training, there was a second Jose Diaz in camp, so they decided to call him Jumbo Diaz
As long as it’s an apt nickname, a boy named Jumbo doesn’t need to toughen up. Who messes with the dude on the block that goes by Jumbo?
Well I am less than thrilled about the off-season and even less thrilled about the O’s off-season
Anyway, it used to be Jose Diaz
I saw him pitch once years ago for the Bowie Baysox
He is a big man and he used to throw a 100 mph
That’s all I know about him
Jumbo needs to stop drinking and eating the jumbo size.
The Marlins aren’t taking any chances with that 2019 first overall pick.
MLB needs a draft lottery. Nothing crazy. Just mix up the top 5 picks or so. Whatever is enough to limit the number of teams intentionally losing 110 games a year.
smh
My Detroit Tigers would like to make an argument for 1st overall pick in 2019. First team to 110 losses wins!
John Shea just snuck in a rumor that the A’s were in talks with Tony Watson and Brian Duensing, who wants 2 years, in this Panik article:
sfchronicle.com/giants/article/Joe-Panik-Giants-ag…
Great flip candidates…
If I’m diaz I make sure I have a great spring and pitch my ass off during the season so I can get traded to a contender, pitch well and get signed for a nice contract in 2019
If he worked his ass off he would no longer be Jumbo Diaz.
I think this is a good acquisition for the Marlins. Obviously there isn’t much of a roster to try and contend this season so getting Diaz who throws a heavy fastball and has several years in the bigs on a minors deal to soak innings makes sense. Granted Diaz won’t be the type of guy to go multiple innings out of the bullpen, which is what Miami needs given that their rotation looks terrible (off the top of your head name 3 potential pitchers in the Marlins rotation, its tough. It’s also why they needed to blow up the team, whether they made their future better in the manner they chose to do so is debatable.)
When we asked for a “big” signing to happen, perhaps we should have been more specific.
Future jumbo Diaz to demand trade from Marlins.