A List of Players He Hits Better Than. Plus Other Fun Facts About Yainer Diaz

I know I’m sounding like that annoying guy who used to beat the drums in Oakland-Alameda Stadium, but if you beat a drum and Dusty Baker doesn’t hear it, does it make a sound?

Just keep beating the drum until he does, I guess.

On the other hand, he may be deaf.

Oh well.

Here goes.

Among players with 300 PAs or more (Diaz has 349) Yainer Diaz ranks fortieth overall in MLB with a wRC+ at 127. This makes him equal to or better than the following shortlist of major league All-Stars.

Rafael Devers...................127

Randy Arozarena.............127

Alex Bregman..................127

Wislon Contreras.............125

Bo Bichette......................124

Paul Goldschmitt............124

Jose Ramirez...................122

Marcus Semien...............122

Justin Turner....................121

Adolis Garcia...................119

Francisco Lindor.............118

Christian Yellich..............117

Fernando Tatis................116

Xander Bogaerts.............114

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.......113

Manny Machado.............113

Matt Chapman................113

Nolan Arenado................111

George Springer.............106

J.T. Realmuto...................102

Carlos Correa..................95

Martin Maldonado...........68 (only five players with 300+ PAs have a lower wRC+)

But wait. There's more.

Compare Diaz’s stats as catcher to his stats as DH

Catcher: 168 PAs......168 wRC+.......16 HR.......12.5 K%

DH: 138 PAs......57 wRC+.........5 HR........24.6 K%

168. Why that’s good for fourth best in baseball. Equal to Ronald Acuna Jr. And better than the “big boy” Julio Rodriguez.

These are small samples. And I wouldn’t expect such a discrepancy to remain over the course of a career. However, research has shown that long-term position players typically are less productive when DHing. Evan Gattis is a good example. His career wRC+ as a catcher was 133. As a DH it was only 104.

Nonetheless, whether or not Diaz remains THIS woeful as a DH, keeping Maldonado at catcher and putting Diaz in as DH does not give the team the benefit of Diaz’s bat. In fact, Diaz is worse as a DH than Maldonado is as a hitting catcher. Maldonado at catcher and Diaz at DH leave two gaping holes in the lineup. It’s especially egregious when you consider that when Diaz DHs, he’s benching Michael Brantley, who remains Professional Hitter par excellence.

When I listen to “foreign” broadcasts of Astros games, I hear the other team commentators say that Maldonado plays because Diaz is a defensive liability, and Maldonado is just so good that he deserves to play even with a .188 BA.

As readers here know, this is old news. Although Diaz’s defensive rating per Fangraphs is lower than the last time I checked, -5.0, it is still better than Maldonado’s at -6.8.

Of course, here at TCB, we know that Maldonado gets most of the catching time because he’s so good at handling pitchers.

Oh yeah, was that Diaz who caught the eight-inning no-hitter Wednesday involving four different pitchers? Against the same lineup that busted open on Maldonado the previous two days?

Dusty defenders typically say he knows things we don’t know. I love Dusty as a man, but I think it’s as simple as he just won’t admit that he’s wrong. And it has cost Yainer Diaz being Rookie of the Year in my opinion.

Yes, I know we hate hearing that old drum in Oakland, and here I am in Houston beating this same old Dusty-is-a-stubborn-old-man drum yet again. But in sixty years of baseball fandom, I’ve never seen such mismanagement in my life. I can’t recall anything even close.

I guess I’ll just keep beating the drum even if it doesn’t make a sound.

Play Diaz at catcher.

Play Diaz at catcher.

Play Diaz at catcher, damn it.