It was no secret that Yainer Diaz struggled early in the season. In his first appearance as a regular with a major league team, the young catcher batted .251/.281/.364 with a wRC+ of 82 in 199 at-bats from March 28 to May 28. He had no real power, posting a .112 ISO and just three home runs in his first 199 at-bats. His struggles were not all that surprising, as there are few positions more difficult than catcher, especially for a regular. The difficulty of the position is real, and an adjustment period was always a possibility. And, dare I say, it was expected.
To be clear, Diaz is still honing his craft as a catcher. Every catcher has a different learning curve, and he’ll stumble defensively at times along the way. There will be progress, but you get the gist. Again, not all progress is linear, so it’s not an unexpected development. But Diaz has always been considered a hit-oriented catcher. We saw that last season when he posted a 127 wRC+ in 397 plate appearances as a reserve. That offensive potential was the main reason the Astros traded him for Martin Maldonado in 2024, but there were reasons unrelated to Diaz, too.
But a lot of Diaz’s value right now is dependent on how well he performs as a hitter, which is why his lackluster start to the season was such a disappointing development. Of course, this team had bigger issues than Diaz’s sluggish start, but that certainly made things worse. One of the reasons he struggled at the plate was the type of contact he was generating.
Of all batted ball types, ground balls are by far the least valuable. Last season, hitters had a wOBA against grounders of .228. But their wOBA against liners was .658 and their wOBA against flies was .441. So what does this have to do with Diaz? Let’s look at his batted ball distribution this season.
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Ground balls were definitely an issue for Diaz at the start of the season. You could see that in metrics like launch angle and during at bats. But over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a return to what we’ve seen from Diaz in the past with more line drives and fly balls. For a hitter like him, that’s a positive development and has been reflected in his metrics over the last few weeks.
May 29th – June 22nd (63PA)
.267/.302/.533, 4 home runs, 50% GB%, .267 ISO, 134 wRC+
For the Astros to overcome their early season slump, Diaz will need to continue to improve as a hitter, especially with his ball distribution. Diaz has also shown improved discipline at the plate, with a 13.9% strikeout rate this season, down from 19.6% in 2023, and a slight increase in his walk rate. There is a lot to like about Diaz as a hitter, and I think he has the potential for further improvement as long as he keeps his ground ball rate low in addition to improving his plate discipline. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues into July and into the remainder of the season.
