Getty Elias Diaz
The New York Yankees need another bat in their lineup and another catcher to help out until Jose Trevino returns. Luckily for them, the Colorado Rockies have a solid hitting catcher to spare in Elias Diaz as the MLB trade deadline nears.
With Trevino on the Injured List and the Yankees relying on Austin Wells to get the majority of the at bats from the position, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand suggests Diaz and the Yankees as a potential trade match.
“Colorado is one of the sure-fire sellers, so unloading its expiring contracts makes perfect sense,” he wrote in a story published July 22. “Could the Yankees be a suitor now that Jose Trevino will miss significant time with a quad strain?”
Trevino has been out since sustaining a Grade 2 strain on July 12. According to Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News, Trevino ran and played catch on Thursday as he progresses, but the Yankees’ former All-Star catcher still isn’t close to a return.
Wells is 2-20 in the team’s five games since Trevino’s injury.
How Elias Diaz Fits With the Yankees
Diaz is a clear upgrade over Wells at catcher — and probably over Trevino as well. He’s an average hitter overall, but for his position, that’s not the biggest concern. He’s hitting .283 with 5 home runs and a .731 OPS (100 OPS+). It doesn’t sound like much, but the Yankees have only three active starters (Ben Rice, Aaron Judge, and Juan Soto) with an OPS+ over 100.
The Rockies catcher is also having arguably the best defensive season of his career. Baseball Savant shows him a step below Trevino in pitch framing and blocking, but way ahead in pop time and caught stealing above average. Anyone who has watched Trevino behind the plate this season has seen how opponents can run wild off him.
This would not be a long-term commitment for the Yankees, with Diaz a free agent at the end of the season. At 33 years old, he’s making $6 million this year. With Trevino still under team control, expect Diaz to be a rental to help shoulder the load the rest of 2024.
The Yankees Need Another Bat
Mets pitcher Luis Severino made headlines for a playful jab at his former Yankees teammates for having only two real bats in their lineup (Judge and Soto). He’s not entirely wrong. The Yankees as a team are hitting .225 since June 15, which is third-worst in the majors.
In that time, hitters the Yankees thought they could rely on have gone silent at the plate (again, except for the two All-Stars, Judge and Soto). Trevino, Gleyber Torres, Anthony Volpe, DJ LeMahieu, and Alex Verdugo all have a below-average wRC+ in that period, while all except for Torres are hitting below .200. To be fair, Wells has been slightly better with a 137 wRC+ and the best walk rate on the team other than Soto.
Even with Diaz, the Yankees would need their existing players to step up. No realistic combination of trade deadline moves can completely overall almost 80% of an offense. But another bat would help, and at minimum could change the energy around a team mired in a six-week slide.