Elías David Díaz Soto (born November 17, 1990) is a Venezuelan professional baseball catcher for the Colorado Rockies of Major League Baseball (MLB).
He previously played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Díaz has also represented the Colombian national baseball team.
Elías Díaz | |
---|---|
Colorado Rockies – No. 35 | |
Catcher | |
Born: Maracaibo, Venezuela | November 17, 1990|
Bats: Right Throws: Right | |
MLB debut | |
September 12, 2015, for the Pittsburgh Pirates | |
MLB statistics (through April 24, 2024) | |
Batting average | .251 |
Home runs | 58 |
Runs batted in | 269 |
Teams | |
| |
Career highlights and awards | |
Díaz signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates as an international free agent in 2008. He made his professional debut in 2009 for the Venezuelan Summer League Pirates. From 2010 to 2013, he played for the Gulf Coast Pirates (batting .210), West Virginia Power (batting .221, and then .208 the following year) and Bradenton Marauders (batting .279).
Díaz started 2014 with the Double-A Altoona Curve. In August he was promoted to the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians after hitting .328 with Altoona, but he then batted .152/.243/.182 in AAA. On November 20, 2014, Díaz was added to the Pirates' 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.
Diaz batted 0-for-2 in the major leagues in 2015, 0-for-4 in 2016, and .223/.265/.314 with one home run in 200 plate appearances in 2017.
On December 2, 2019, Díaz was non-tendered by Pittsburgh and became a free agent.
On January 6, 2020, Díaz signed a minor league deal with the Colorado Rockies. Díaz made the Opening Day roster for the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Díaz batted .235/.288/.353 with two home runs in 73 plate appearances over 2020. In 2021, he batted .246/.310/.464 with 18 home runs and 44 RBIs in 106 games. On November 18, 2021, Díaz signed a three-year, $14.5 million extension with the Rockies. On September 10, Diaz went 4-for-5 with two home runs and seven RBIs, including a three-run walk-off home run, leading the Rockies to a 13-10 win.
In 2023, Díaz was named to the 2023 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. He hit the game-winning home run for the National League in the eighth inning and was named the game's Most Valuable Player.
Born in Venezuela, Díaz is of Colombian descent through his father, and is thus eligible to represent the Colombia national baseball team. He was slated to play with Colombia at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, but was not permitted by the Pirates organization due to injury reasons. He was named to the Colombian roster for the 2023 World Baseball Classic, where he shared catching duties with Meibrys Viloria. Díaz hit .250/.250/.375 over eight at-bats in the tournament, with one double and one RBI.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia English article Elías Díaz, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.