Former Rockies All-Star Game MVP opts out of Royals deal for valid reason originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Kansas City Royals lost some catching depth on Friday.
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Based on the MiLB transaction log, the 2023 Major League Baseball All-Star Game MVP has denied an outright assignment to Triple-A.
That catcher would be Elias Diaz, who appeared in 10 games with the Royals and hit two home runs in 23 trips to the plate.
Because Diaz has over nine years of Major League service time, he can reject an assignment to the minors. Kansas City had recently designated the 35-year-old for assignment.
2023 remains the only All-Star selection of Diaz’s career. Since making his debut in 2015 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he has hit 10 or more homers just three times, and his career OPS+ is 81.
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Diaz’s best years in the Majors came with the Colorado Rockies from 2020-24, and he even managed to post 2.2 bWAR in 2021.
Another organization could find value in his previous defensive work and bring him on as a third-string catcher, as he will almost certainly have to settle for a minor league deal.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source sports.yahoo.com ’
