The Rockies have a minor-league deal in place with backstop Elias Diaz, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). Further details aren’t known.
Diaz, 29, received quite a few opportunities with the Pirates over the past several seasons but was cut loose after a rough 2019 season. He’ll do battle with Tony Wolters and Drew Butera in camp as the Colorado org looks to improve its catching situation in a cost-efficient manner.
The arrow was pointed up for Diaz in 2018, when he turned in a .286/.339/.452 batting line over 277 plate appearances. But he slumped back to his uninspiring 2017 levels in the just-completed campaign, providing the Bucs with just a .241/.296/.307 slash in 332 trips to the dish with bat in hand.
Teams will on occasion look past some brutal offensive numbers for defensively proficient backstops. But Diaz’s struggles extended to his efforts behind the dish. Indeed, he came in at the very bottom of the board compiled by Baseball Prospectus, which took a particularly dim view of Diaz’s framing efforts.
Was hoping Mets would replace nido with him
Why though his defense is dreadful
Nido hits under 200 it’s that simple
Most times teams would like a defense first backstop for the backup. Nidos defense is fine and that 228 average that your gonna get off Ellias isn’t that much higher. Definitely not worth the trade off
Not sure where the 228 comes from since his career avg is 250 while nido is 187. That’s a significant gap if you ask me
To be fair I’m probably exaggerating a little but my point is I think Nido is the better catcher and the mets rotation seems to like throwing to him so why mess that up?
I’m going to break it down real nice and simple for all the mouth breathers and nincompoops that frequent this site. I reviewed the advanced metrics, and can assure you Diaz will rake in Colorado.
Calling people names while using “metrics” as predictive facts is laughably absurd. Those of us with functioning brains understand what statistics are, and why expecting them to predict results is a fools errand.
Diaz may rake in Colorado, as a pinch hitter. This dude is a terrible catcher. You’ll see.
“Teams will on occasion look past some brutal offensive numbers for defensively proficient backstops.” Good thing for all of the Rockies catchers.
We’ve just witnessed the most active day of the Rockies’ offseason.
Hey it’s not easy getting the phone hung up on you all the time:
“Hey, I can give you Bryan Shaw cheap”
“Hey, you can have Jake McGee”
“Hey, how bout Desmond to round out your outfield?”
They know they’re not getting out of those deals until they’re up, MAYBE McGee can be a deadline deal. Jon Gray talks aren’t an automatic hang up though.
I think Diaz is a solid bounce back option. Solid move by Rockies.
I got him at a buck. I’m happy
I’m starting to actually think Arenado might be moved.
Infield candidates are piling up and pitching needs to be addressed .
Nolan could bring back a slew of young arms.
Not a bad tandem of Wolters/Diaz. Definitely could be a lot worse.
Really? It gets worse than that? Gross.
In my opinion yes. I can name 8-9 teams who have worse tandems. You can make an argument that says they’re only better than a few. But I think Diaz will rebound, and If Wolters plays like last year then sure they’re slightly below average tandem, that’s where I see them. I’d rank them in the 17-20 range of 30 teams.
Well if the season goal is to be 22nd in the league, then awesome. They’ve done it.
Based on where they were last year and the beginning of the offseason, I think it’s better. Plus, they have an above average outfield and probably the best left side of the infield in the game. That offsets how mediocre the catching is.
No it doesn’t. Plus catching helps not only at the plate, but more importantly it helps the pitching staff. More often than not, championship teams are extremely solid behind the plate. People talk about MadBum, but the Giants don’t win 3 titles without Buster Posey. Derek Jeter gets all the acclaim for the late 90s Yankees, but Jorge Posada was just as vital. Yadier Molina was a key cog in the great Cardinals teams of the century as well.
The Rockies have never had even a top 10 catcher in the league. When the best catcher in franchise history is journeyman Chris Iannetta, something needs to be done. I like Tony Wolters as a player. He is scrappy, plucky and a bunch of other adjectives used to describe mediocre players over the years. He also seems like a good person away from the field, but he is not a first division starting catcher in this league. Honestly, I don’t even think he qualifies as a second division starting catcher either.
And Diaz had a very rough year, he’s bound to bounce back. What about the Nats? Gomes was horrible. They had Suzuki behind the dish, who is to say Wolters can’t be that way?
Second, the Rockies aren’t a championship caliber team, and I never implied that they were. They are competent team with competent catching. You can go on with your championship level catching, but you saying that means most of the league should just quit because they don’t have Realmuto, Posey, Molina, Grandal, Contreras, or a few other. With that logic, only 6-7 team have a remote chance. And I don’t think that’s true.
“More often than not, championship teams are extremely solid behind the plate.”
“you saying that means most of the league should just quit ”
Please look up the phrase “more often than not” and try to figure out where you went wrong there.
Next, how can you claim the Rockies aren’t a championship caliber team and then claim that there aren’t 6-7 teams that have a remote chance? This basic Rockies roster tied with the Dodgers for the NL West in 2018. They were decimated by injuries in 2019 and their record reflected that, but it’s still the same basic team that made the playoffs 2 years in a row. .If you don’t think that type of team has a remote chance, then how many teams do you think have a chance?
Diaz is not bound to bounce back. He could just as easily wash out of the league.
Finally, I think anyone that has ever seen Kurt Suzuki and Tony Wolters play can say that Tony Wolters is not as good. Suzuki is very underrated. I would put him in the top 10 catchers in the league, possibly even close to top 5. Gomes is meaningless in this argument because he is the back up. That being said, he is probably superior to Wolters as well..
Jeff Mathis, who replaced Chirinos(still available), played 88 games for Texas with a .433 OPS for a wRC+ of 2. Not a typo, .433 OPS, 2 wRC+(also Kd 35% of the time). Very gross. Jon Daniels is playing with my emotions.
What’s his slash line without a bat in his hand?
It was so frustrating watching him as a Pirate fan last season. He was awful and got to the point where Pirate pitchers not only were worse when he was pitching, but requesting that they’d not pitch to him. The only thing he has is a strong arm but it’s not that accurate. I was hopeful after that 2018 but he proved me right.
Diaz came up looking like a Salvador Perez type and quickly turned into Rod Barajas. Shame.
The Pirates jettisoned Reese McGuire in that awful Liriano salary dump because Diaz was judged as almost a sure thing. Another fine moment for the prior regime.
I didn’t know Butera had re-signed with the Rockies. Did I miss that?