Yandy Diaz

30-Year-Old Third Baseman3B

Tampa Bay Rays

2021 Stats

AVG

.256

RBI

Rest-of-Season Projections

AVG

RBI

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2021 Fantasy Outlook

To paraphrase the 2004 film Mean Girls, "stop trying to make Yandy Diaz and launch angle happen. It's not going to happen." We are nearly 800 plate appearances into Diaz's career, and he has a career 2 degree average launch angle. His 2020 season was interrupted by a hamstring strain which cost him all September, but he had a -8 degree launch angle on 97 batted balls. A typical Diaz batted ball is something on or close to the ground to the opposite field, yet defenses were reticent to put three infielders to the right of second base. He put the ball where they would not go, and hit .307 and then drew walks to reach a .428 OBP on the year. Diaz can be productive even without the power, but beware of the strain the absence of power puts on your other roster spots in fantasy, and also that he's without a true everyday role on a Rays team with a lot of moving parts. Read Past Outlooks

RANKSFrom Preseason

#516

ADP

Overall

League Majors

Bats R

Throws R

40 Man Yes

Height 6'2"

Weight 215

DOB 8/8/1991

Born Sagua la Grande, Cuba

College None

Drafted 2013 CLE

Steals base in return

3BTampa Bay Rays

October 1, 2021

Diaz (ribs) went 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base in Friday's 4-3 win over the Yankees.

ANALYSIS
The infielder hadn't started since Tuesday, but he batted cleanup in Friday's win. Diaz's steal was his first of the season on his second attempt. He's slashing .258/.354/.390 with 13 home runs, 64 RBI, 61 runs scored and 20 doubles through 536 plate appearances. He should continue to hold a short-side platoon role at third base in the postseason, with Joey Wendle handling the strong side.

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Batting Stats

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2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

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2020 MLB Game Log

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2019 MLB Game Log

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2018 MLB Game Log

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2017 MLB Game Log

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Batting Order Slot Breakdown

vs Right-Handed Pitchers

vs RHP

vs Left-Handed Pitchers

vs LHP

Left/Right Batting Splits

Since 2019

+18%

OPS vs LHP

2021

+18%

OPS vs LHP

2020

+8%

OPS vs RHP

2019

+33%

OPS vs LHP

	OPS	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG
Since 2019vs Left	.860	380	41	13	44	1	.293	.384	.476
Since 2019vs Right	.727	646	90	16	69	2	.251	.344	.384
2021vs Left	.812	218	24	6	25	0	.288	.367	.445
2021vs Right	.690	323	38	7	39	1	.234	.344	.347
2020vs Left	.768	45	2	0	3	0	.265	.444	.324
2020vs Right	.832	93	14	2	8	0	.325	.419	.413
2019vs Left	.976	117	15	7	16	1	.311	.393	.583
2019vs Right	.735	230	38	7	22	1	.245	.313	.422
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Home/Away Batting Splits

Since 2019

+17%

OPS at Home

2021

+13%

OPS at Home

2020

+10%

OPS at Home

2019

+26%

OPS at Home

	OPS	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG
Since 2019Home	.839	504	64	13	57	1	.285	.389	.450
Since 2019Away	.717	522	67	16	56	2	.249	.330	.387
2021Home	.786	264	29	5	33	0	.273	.386	.400
2021Away	.697	277	33	8	31	1	.241	.321	.376
2020Home	.861	58	3	1	3	0	.304	.448	.413
2020Away	.780	80	13	1	8	0	.309	.413	.368
2019Home	.905	182	32	7	21	1	.297	.374	.532
2019Away	.719	165	21	7	17	1	.235	.303	.416
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Stat Review

How does Yandy Diaz compare to other hitters?

This section compares his stats with all batting seasons from the previous three seasons (minimum 400 plate appearances)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.

* Exit Velocity and Barrels/PA % are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 400 PA) and Hard Hit Rate is benchmarked against last season's data (min 400 PA). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.

BB/K
Walk to strikeout ratio
BB Rate
The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a walk.
K Rate
The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a strikeout.
BABIP
Batting average on balls in play. Measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits.
ISO
Isolated Power. Slugging percentage minus batting average. A computation used to measure a batter's raw power.
AVG
Batting average. Hits divided by at bats.
OBP
On Base Percentage. A measure of how often a batters reaches base. Roughly equal to number of times on base divided by plate appearances.
SLG
Slugging Percentage. A measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats.
OPS
On base plus slugging. THe sum of a batter's on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
wOBA
Weighted on-base average. Measures a player's overall offensive contributions per plate appearance. wOBA combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their actual run value.
Exit Velocity
The speed of the baseball as it comes off the bat, immediately after a batter makes contact.
Hard Hit Rate
A measure of contact quality from Sports Info Solutions. This stat explains what percentage of batted balls were hit hard vs. medium or soft.
Barrels/PA
The percentage of plate appearances where a batter had a batted ball classified as a Barrel. A Barrel is a batted ball with similar exit velocity and launch angle to past ones that led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage.

BB/K

0.81

BB Rate

12.8%

K Rate

15.7%

BABIP

.286

ISO

.131

AVG

.256

OBP

.353

SLG

.387

OPS

.740

wOBA

.330

Exit Velocity

83.8 mph

Hard Hit Rate

34.9%

Barrels/PA

5.4%

Advanced Batting Stats

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Additional Stats

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Defensive Stats

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Batted Ball Stats

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Stats Vs Upcoming Pitchers

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Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Yandy Diaz

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15 days ago

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20 days ago

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MLB FAAB Factor: Waiver Pickups of the Week

25 days ago

Jason Shebilske offers up his final Thursday FAAB recommendations, including Angles outfielder Brandon Marsh, who has a relatively high on-base percentage and has been effective crossing the plate.

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29 days ago

Chris Morgan really likes a Dodger stack against Humberto Mejia and the D-backs.

Past Fantasy Outlooks

2020

2019

2018

2017

Diaz finally unlocked some power with Tampa Bay after homering just once in 299 plate appearances over two seasons in Cleveland. Though his launch angle only moved from 4.4 to 5.7 degrees, that was enough for Diaz to raise his flyball rate more than five points above his career mark, allowing him to easily outdo his prior slugging numbers. Diaz didn't see his plate skills diminish due to the new approach, as he maintained strong strikeout (17.6%) and walk (10.2%) rates and ranked in the 82nd percentile of all players in hard-hit percentage. While he met expectations from a skills standpoint, durability was a concern for Diaz, who spent time on the shelf with hand, hamstring and foot injuries. If healthy, Diaz should open 2020 in a regular role at the hot corner, though the Rays' wealth of options could push him into short-side platoon duty if he falls into a prolonged slump at any point.

The knock on Diaz coming into 2018 was the total absence of in-game power. He did little to quash that narrative, totaling a mere four homers in 546 plate appearances between Triple-A and the majors, but at least he started to make some adjustments. Diaz shaved nearly six percentage points from his groundball rate at the big-league level (from 59% to 53.5%) while adding more than four percentage points to his flyball rate. His average launch angle was still among the lowest in baseball, but 4.4 degrees is a big improvement over 0, and with that, he was able to tap into some gap power. Over-the-fence power may never come even with further refinement, but Diaz has strong plate skills (15.8 K%, 9.2 BB% last season) and with regular playing time, he could be a nice source of batting average. The question is whether that playing time will come. Following an offseason trade to the Rays, it seems likely.

The 26-year-old is a physical specimen with impressive muscle mass on a 6-foot-2 frame. If he ever joins the launch-angle revolution, watch out. He drove the ball into the ground 59 percent of the time with the big-league club last season and had the lowest Average Launch Angle among 387 hitters with at least 100 at-bats. Diaz hit the ball fairly hard (32.8 percent hard contact rate), but without the other piece of the puzzle, the power numbers were non-existent (.064 ISO). He displayed a good approach at the plate, walking 21 times in 179 plate appearances (11.7 percent), as well as decent contact ability (19.6 percent strikeout rate). Those skills along with Jason Kipnis' struggles staying healthy last year give Diaz plenty of appeal in AL-only formats, but he will need to show that he can hit for some power against big-league pitching before he can be justified as a mixed-league starter.

A cannon-armed third baseman signed out of Cuba in 2013, Diaz has raked his way through each level of the Indians' minor league system over the past three seasons. After posting a 144 wRC+ and walking more than he struck out (1.50 BB/K) at Double-A Akron, Diaz was promoted to Triple-A Columbus during the 2016 season. Though his walk rate slipped a bit, his bat stayed hot. In 416 plate appearances, the 25-year-old slashed .325/.399/.461 and posted a robust 11.3 walk rate to go along with his 16.8 percent strikeout rate. Having shown that he's a threat at the plate, Diaz has also been identified as one of the top defensive third basemen in the minor leagues. It shouldn't be too long before he makes his MLB debut with the Indians and he is a player worth keeping an eye in deeper leagues and dynasty formats.

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Back in lineup

3BTampa Bay Rays

October 1, 2021

Diaz (ribs) will bat cleanup and start at third base Friday against the Yankees, Neil Solondz of the Rays Radio Network reports.