Yainer

Diaz

Diaz gave the Astros their only run of the game with a solo shot to left off Logan Gilbert. It’s the first homer of the season for Diaz, and he’s reached 20 roundtrippers in two of his last three seasons.

Diaz reached on an infield single to start the third inning and scored the Astros’ first run on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Yordan Alvarez. He then drove in a run of his own with an RBI double off of J.T. Ginn in the ninth inning that pulled the Astros to within seven runs at 11-4. With his two-hit attack, he’s now hitting .227/.280/.273 with zero homers, four RBI and a 6/2 K/BB ratio through his first 25 plate appearances on the season.

It’s a routine day off for a catcher with a day game after a night game, but since Yordan Alvarez is entrenched at the designated hitter, there is nowhere else for Diaz to play. That’s an ongoing battle that he will face all season. Christian Vázquez will start behind the dish and bat ninth.

Vázquez will serve as the primary caddy to starter Yainer Diaz after making the club as a non-roster invitee this spring. The trickle-down effect here is that César Salazar will be designated for assignment and exposed to waivers since he is out of minor-league options.

Vázquez languished on the open market all offseason before finally latches on with the Astros with just a few weeks leading up to Opening Day. The 35-year-old veteran is merely a part-time defensive specialist at this stage of his career and will be returning to Houston where he spent the final two months of the 2022 campaign after being dealt by the Red Sox. He’s a solid emergency option behind backup catcher César Salazar in case anything happened to starter Yainer Diaz.

That’s expected to come soon. Diaz’s DWL season ended on Dec. 17 after he was hurt sliding into second base. Manager Joe Espada said the injury factored into Diaz being left off the Dominican Republic’s WBC roster. He likely would have been the choice to split time with Austin Wells behind the plate, but Agustín Ramírez ended up getting the nod.

Díaz and Austin Wells was the expected catcher duo for the club, but something changed there. Even with José Ramírez available, Albert Pujols’ club has arguably the best lineup in the tournament: RF Fernando Tatis Jr., LF Juan Soto, 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 2B Ketel Marte, 3B Manny Machado, CF Julio Rodríguez, DH Junior Caminero, SS Jeremy Peña/Geraldo Perdomo, C Wells. The rotation isn’t great beyond Cristopher Sánchez, but the team is a definite top contender.

Diaz won out after the Astros filed at just $3 million. The catcher hit .256 with 20 homers, 70 RBI and a 95/20 K/BB ratio over his 567 plate appearances with Houston in 2025.

It’s the first time that hard-hitting 27-year-old backstop is eligible for arbitration. MLBTradeRumors.com projected that he would earn $4.5 million via the arbitration process, so it seems far more likely that if it does go to a hearing that Diaz would ultimately win out. He’s coming off of another solid offensive season in which he slashed .256/.284/.417 with 20 homers, 70 RBI and a 95/20 K/BB ratio across 567 plate appearances.

Nothing official yet, but it doesn’t sound like it was serious. The injury occurred on a slide. Diaz, who is playing for Escogido, was 2-for-2 with an RBI before exiting.