MLB: What a birthday gift, Elías Díaz signs extension with Rockies

The Colorado Rockies will keep their starting catcher beyond next season, announcing a three-year extension with the Venezuelan Elías Díaz. The agreement buys your final year of arbitration eligibility and the first two years of free agency. According to reports, Diaz you will be guaranteed $ 14.5MM in full, and the specific pay breakdown is yet to be reported.

It is a nice birthday present for the MAS + Agency client, who turned 31 years old yesterday. Diaz has spent the past two seasons in Denver, starting most of the team’s games behind the plate in 2021:

He’s coming off a good season, hitting .246 / .310 / .464 with 18 home runs in 371 plate appearances. Those final results are a bit inflated when playing their home games at Coors Field, but it’s a decent production even after taking that favorable environment into account. By the wRC + measure, which includes a park adjustment, Diaz’s hitting was roughly three percentage points better than the league average catcher.

That is one of the best demonstrations of his career. The right backstop hitting entered the 2021 campaign with just a .248 / .300 / .355 mark in 888 plate appearances between the Pirates and Colorado.

He made similar strides on the other side of the ball, calling himself an above-average pitching frame (according to Statcast) last season for the first time in his five-year tenure.

While he has received mixed reviews as a receiver throughout his career, he has always done a great job closing out the running game. Díaz has reduced 30.4% of base stealing attempts as a Major League player, a mark that is a few percentage points north of the league average in that time:

The Rockies clearly believe Diaz’s numbers last season better reflect his true talents, and will make a fairly modest bet that he can remain a capable # 1 receiver for years to come.

MLB Trade Rumors contributor Matt Swartz had projected that Diaz would earn a salary in 2022 in the range of $ 2.6MM had he proceeded through arbitration. Essentially, the Rockies are adding about $ 12MM in extra money to buy themselves two more years of control of the team.

That’s a little short of the $ 16MM the Braves guaranteed Travis d’Arnaud in a two-year extension in August (although d’Arnaud’s deal also included a club option in 2024).

The Rox shouldn’t have much of a hard time fitting Diaz’s deal in the books. Colorado entered today with a projected payroll in the range of $ 104MM, in the estimate of Jason Martinez of Roster Resource.

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That’s in line with their 2021 season-opening tally, but they only have about $ 56MM in guaranteed commitments for 2023 right now, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts. With the Rockies planning to increase roster over the next two seasons, this extension shouldn’t be an impediment to future additions.

Rafael Martinez

I am fond of the King of Sports, especially the Boston Red Sox in MLB and in general all of Mexican baseball. This profession has given me the opportunity to cover major events such as the Caribbean Series, LMB All Star, LMP (uninterrupted since 2009), signings of important players. I had the chance to attend the 2013 World Classic in Arizona, USA, albeit as a fan. Apart from this beautiful sport, I love basketball, where I have also narrated games and even an NBA friendly 10 years ago, but I carry baseball in my veins. Bachelor of Communication Sciences from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS) , from which I graduated in 2011. I was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa and started in the world of sports journalism in 2004 in the newspaper El Sol de Mazatlán, where I was a baseball columnist and reporter at the same time. In January 2009 I came to El Debate as a journalist reporter and it was almost six years (in the first stage), until in November 2014 I emigrated to the radio providing my services in Línea Directa-Grupo RSN. My cycle there ended in July 2019 and within days, El Debate gave me another opportunity to work and opened the doors for me again. That is how I came to Al Bat, where I have been since 2019 as a web journalist.

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