In one year, he's a different player. This is the story of Tampa Bay first baseman Yandy Diaz, 33, who won the American League batting title last year.
Diaz played in 137 games last year, batting .330 with 22 home runs and 78 RBIs. His OPS, which combines slugging and on-base percentage, was a whopping .932.
As a result, he was named to his first All-Star team last year and won the American League batting title. At the end of the season, he won the Silver Slugger Award, which recognizes the best hitter at each position. His batting average, RBIs, and home runs were all career highs. This year, however, he's been a different player altogether.
As of Aug. 18, Diaz is batting .211 with one home run and 10 RBIs in 19 games this season. His OPS is an abysmal .568.
"I feel like I'm getting off to a slow start, unlike last year," Diaz recently told the Tampa Bay Times, adding, "It'll get better with time. It's nothing to worry about," he said. However, Major League Baseball officials tend to chalk it up to "the natural progression of Diaz's dazzling performance last year, which caused other teams to scrutinize him more closely."
The Cuban-born Diaz made his major league debut with Cleveland in 2017. He appeared in 49 games that year, batting .263 with 13 RBIs 토토사이트 and a .679 OPS. The following year, in 2018, he struggled to establish himself as a regular in the big leagues, appearing in only 39 games.
However, a trade to his current team, Tampa Bay, in 2019 proved to be a major turning point in his career. In 2021, he played in more than 100 games (134) for the first time since his big league debut, and his numbers weren"t bad, with a .256 batting average, 14 home runs, and 64 RBIs.
In 2022, he was even better, batting .296 with nine home runs, 57 RBIs, and an OPS of .824 in 137 games.
So Tampa Bay waited, and in January of last year, they gave Diaz a three-year, $24 million extension. Diaz responded by becoming the American League batting champion and an All-Star for the organization that believed in him. In June of last year, he was also blessed with the birth of his first son.
Life can"t always be this good. So far, this season has brought Diaz more trouble than happiness. It"ll be interesting to see when the 2023 version of Diaz shows up.
