ROBINZON DIAZ

9/19/83; NDFA '00 (Toronto); Dominican Republic
R/R; 5-11, 180

Level
BA
OBP
SA
AB
2B
3B
HR
BB
K
SB
CS
2002 A+ (Tor)
.120
.148
.120
25
0
0
0
1
4
0
0
2002 R+ (Tor)
.297
.345
.344
192
9
0
0
13
19
7
4
2003 R+ (Tor)
.374
.407
.522
182
20
2
1
10
14
1
4
2004 A (Tor)
.287
.341
.361
407
20
2
2
27
31
10
4
2005 A+ (Tor)
.294
.325
.376
388
17
6
1
15
28
5
2
2006 A+ (Tor)
.306
.341
.383
418
21
1
3
20
37
8
1
2007 AAA (Tor)
.338
.358
.431
65
3
0
1
1
6
0
0
2007 AA (Tor)
.316
.344
.409
301
17
1
3
11
16
5
0
2008 NL
.500
.500
.500
6
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
2008 AL (Tor)
.000
.000
.000
4
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
2008 AAA
.357
.357
.500
14
0
1
0
0
0
1
2
2008 AAA (Tor)
.244
.266
.336
131
7
1
1
5
10
0
1
2008 A+ (Tor)
.320
.320
.480
25
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
2008 R (Tor)
.386
.420
.591
44
3
0
2
2
4
0
0
2009 NL
.279
.307
.357
129
7
0
1
3
9
0
1
2009 AAA
.262
.308
.349
149
4
0
3
9
12
0
1

No, that's not a typo.  The Pirates acquired Diaz from Toronto late in the 2008 season as a PTBNL for Jose Bautista.  His acquisition helped ease a serious need in the organization for catching depth.  Baseball America rated Diaz the 13th best prospect in Toronto's weak system.  As is obvious from the numbers, he's essentially a poor man's Manny Sanguillen:  a free swinger who hits for average and rarely strikes out, but generates little power and seldom walks.  He isn't likely to be a good hitter, but he could become a much better hitter than the typical backup catcher.  He's an athletic catcher who's played occasionally at 3B and runs well.  Every source I've seen characterizes him as a good defensive player, although he's had some high error and passed ball totals in the minors.  His arm is average but he has a good release; he threw out 32% of base stealers in 2007.  He missed a large part of the 2008 season with an ankle injury.

After the trade, Diaz played briefly at Indianapolis and then received a September callup.  In a scenario that was unpleasantly reminscent of Lloyd McClendon and his insistence on going all-out to win meaningless September games, Diaz played little while Raul Chavez got most of the starts when Ryan Doumit didn't play.  Diaz made just one start and one pinch-hitting appearance the entire month.  It defies explanation why manager John Russell chose to start Chavez, who was predictably released in the fall, five times while giving Diaz just one start.  Diaz went into spring training set to battle for the backup spot with newly acquired Jason Jaramillo.  He far outhit Jaramillo in spring training, but the Pirates prefer Jaramillo's defense, so Diaz was sent to AAA to start the season.  He ended up as the number two catcher for the Pirates for about half the season, though, when Ryan Doumit broke his wrist.  He did a good job of putting the bat on the ball and hitting singles, but he drew only one walk over his first 112 at-bats.  The Pirates tended to play him mainly against LHPs, but over his career he's hit LHPs and RHPs almost exactly the same.  (Oddly, he had a huge reverse platoon split with the Pirates, but that was almost certainly a fluke.)  Defensively, Diaz showed good athleticism at times, but seemed to bounce around a lot behind the plate, leading to a lot of passed balls (seven in just 283 innings; the average NL team had only eight all year) and pitches that weren't blocked well.  He threw out 24% of base stealers.  When Doumit returned, Diaz went back to AAA and played a little at first and third in an effort to increase his versatility.

Surprisingly, the Pirates designated Diaz for assignment to make room for players they wanted to protect from the Rule 5 draft.  The facts that he was out of options and was unlikely to beat out Jaramillo were probably the keys, but the team may also have been dissatisfied with his defense.  It'd be equally surprising if he cleared waivers.  Even if he does, he can't be outrighted due to his service time, so he'll become a free agent.

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