Robinzon Diaz… Not Your Typical Catcher
Robinzon Diaz is not your typical catcher. The Dominican, who was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2000, came into the 2008 season with a .305 career minor league average in six seasons. But he also had a slugging percentage of .388.
Diaz is similar to Vladimir Guerrero, in the sense that he is a bad-ball hitter that can make contact with just about any pitch. Last season at Double-A, the right-handed batter struck out 16 times in 301 at-bats (but also walked only 11 times). In 1,978 career at-bats, he has walked 98 times and struck out 155 times (which Adam Dunn could only dream of for a single season total).
Diaz has done nothing but hit in the minors, but he has moved slowly through the system due to less-than-impressive defensive skills. Although he is extremely athletic for a catcher, and the organization considered converting him to third or second base, Diaz struggled with game calling and receiving.
The young catcher, who is 24, has improved by leaps and bounds in the last year, though, according to the Jays organization. As such, he was promoted to the majors for the first time in his career when the organization released designated hitter Frank Thomas last week. Diaz was batting .368/.390/.553 at Triple-A. He also ended 2007 at Syracuse and batted .338/.358/.431 in 65 at-bats before an injury caused him to miss a September call-up.
One other interesting knock on Diaz throughout his career is that he tended to take it easy and never really gave his all. People have said that he is a good player, who could be a very good player if he dedicated himself to the game on an everyday basis. As a result, Diaz could end up being a lot like Florida’s Hanley Ramirez, who has posted much better numbers on the center stage that is Major League Baseball, than he ever did in the minors.
Marc Hulet has been writing at FanGraphs since 2008. His work focuses on prospects and fantasy. Follow him on Twitter @marchulet.
My question would be, does it look like Diaz is going to be an everyday player this season and will it be mainly at DH or is he going to get behind the plate some?
Marc, has his game calling improved at all from what you’ve seen or heard?
The game calling is significantly better… at one point the minor league pitchers literally hated throwing to him.
I think it would be a waste to stick him at designated hitter for any extended period, given his athleticism (for a catcher). But I’m not sure how much longer he’ll be up with Scott Rolen due back Friday, and Adam Lind also possibly on the way up sooner rather than later.
But I’d rather see him on the roster than Rod Barajas but I guess it doesn’t do much good to have him rotting on the bench.
Are the rest of the Blue Jays so bad that they use three catchers in their lineup with Zaun, Barajas and Diaz?
It’s not so much the Jays are that bad, but that they were struggling to score runs and had guys that were sick.
Thomas was just released, so they put Zaun @ C, Barajas @ 1B (Overbay was sick that day) and Diaz was DHing because Rios was sick too (there was a nasty flu going around the team) which meant Stairs had to play in the OF. It was a one game thing. Normally only one catcher in the game. I swear.
Why Diaz wasn’t catching with Zaun DHing was somewhat beyond me, especially since the Jays haven’t bothered looking at his catching abilities at any given time while wasting his service time is beyond me. I realize Halladay was pitching and Zaun knows him better, but Zaun plays almost everyday so it’s effectively a day off for Zaun if he DH’s, and you get to see Diaz’s catching/throwing ability firsthand.
But what do I know, I’m just a random blogger…