Rays slugger underrated but not unappreciated

This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

KANSAS CITY -- First, let’s start with a trivia question.

Since 2022, only four qualified hitters in Major League Baseball have recorded a .300 batting average, a .380 on-base percentage, and a .460 slugging percentage. Can you name them?

One is Aaron Judge, the Yankees’ captain and three-time American League MVP. Another is Freddie Freeman, the nine-time All-Star and likely future Hall of Famer. Don’t forget Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez, one of the game’s most imposing sluggers.

Finally, there’s Yandy Díaz, who has put together a .304/.383/.466 slash line for the Rays over the past five seasons. Yes, you can safely mention Tampa Bay’s leadoff man in the same sentence as some of the game’s best all-around hitters. That’s what he’s been, and that is what he remains.

“Pitchers come over and know how good he is. The players know how good he is,” hitting coach Chad Mottola said. “I don’t know if the public has perceived the credit he deserves.”

There is still a sense that Díaz might be the most underrated hitter in baseball, overshadowed on his own team by ascendant All-Stars like Junior Caminero and Jonathan Aranda and overlooked on a national level because he plays in a smaller media market.

But that is not the case inside the Rays’ clubhouse.

Last month, starter Shane McClanahan recalled a conversation with Drew Rasmussen during which they agreed Díaz could be “probably the best pure hitter we’ve ever played with.” Shortstop Taylor Walls offered a similar opinion, calling the muscular 34-year-old “the best hitter I’ve ever seen live [and] played with.”

The Rays’ leadoff man finished Thursday's play leading the AL with a .326 average, tied for second in the Majors. His .908 OPS was the ninth highest in baseball, behind a bunch of award winners and household names: Alvarez, Juan Soto, Nick Kurtz, Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber, Caminero, Ben Rice and James Wood.

Yet Díaz wasn’t even a finalist for the starting AL DH spot in the All-Star Game, finishing a distant third in the voting behind Alvarez and George Springer. As much as he appreciates being recognized for what he’s done, he said he’s fine with the lack of attention.

“I don't pay attention to that type of stuff. I pay attention to my team. I pay attention to how I play. I'm just here to play baseball,” Díaz said through interpreter Kevin Vera. “I’m not a player that necessarily goes out and craves attention. I'm in my own corner. I'm doing my own thing.”

What he does is hit as consistently as just about anyone in the game. Early in his career, so much of the discussion around Díaz focused on what he wasn’t. Despite his massive biceps and how hard he hit the ball, he was a ground-ball hitter who mostly made a living with walks and opposite-field singles.

But he unlocked more power over the years and found the perfect blend in 2023, when he won the AL batting title, homered in the All-Star Game and finished sixth in the MVP voting while slashing .330/.410/.522 with 22 homers and 78 RBIs.

This season, he’s putting up numbers that roughly match that career-best campaign and said recently he’s felt “like myself kind of at my best.”

“He’s a very complete hitter,” said starter Griffin Jax, who faced Díaz with the Twins before joining the Rays last season. “Obviously he's got the power, but just the consistency he has every single at-bat is very impressive for somebody his size.”

“I think it's a testament to the consistency of his routine and how he approaches the game, his preparation and stuff,” added closer Bryan Baker, who has also seen Díaz as an opponent and teammate.

“Sometimes I wish I was a hitter, just so I could learn from him even more.”

Díaz’s steadiness sometimes turns into a punchline. After a four-hit game against the Royals last week, Aranda joked that kind of performance was “kind of not surprising at all” and “not impressive, just because he does it every single day, over and over again.”

As Mottola put it, “I guess it’s just so expected that maybe it’s boring for some people.”

“I kind of hate it, how easy it is -- because it’s a lot harder for the rest of us,” outfielder Jonny DeLuca said, smiling. “He’s pretty special.”

More public recognition could come soon for Díaz if he is selected to play in another All-Star Game. That won’t change the way the Rays think about him, though. He may be underrated, but he’s not unappreciated.

“You can’t really say how important he is for us and the way we do things,” Mottola said.