Astros Young Star Listed Among Top Catchers

The Houston Astros believe they have a budding star in catcher Yainer Diaz, so much so that they’ve already named him their starting catcher for 2024.

Turns out MLB Network agrees. The network revealed its “Top 10 Catchers Right Now” on Wednesday night and Diaz — who has only played one full season of Major League Baseball — checked in at No. 8.

Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman was No. 1. He was followed by Will Smith of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Sean Murphy of the Atlanta Braves, J.T. Realmuto of the Philadelphia Phillies, William Contreras of the Milwaukee Brewers, Willson Contreras of the St. Louis Cardinals and Alejandro Kirk of the Toronto Blue Jays.

After Diaz was Seattle’s Cal Raleigh and Arizona’s Gabriel Moreno.

Earlier this year Diaz was named to the Baseball Digest/eBay All-Star Rookie Lineup.

He won’t handle every game behind the plate in 2024. But he’ll get the majority of the starts. To augment the workload behind the plate the Astros signed veteran Victor Caratini in December.

Diaz batted.282 with 23 home runs and 60 RBI in 104 games. He ended up finishing fifth in American League Rookie of the Year voting.

The rookie season also led to a $333,108 bonus for Diaz based on the pre-arbitration bonus pool for young players that don’t have the service time for arbitration but out-perform their current pay based on a WAR formula and bonuses for individual league-wide awards.

Diaz was signed by the Cleveland Guardians as an international free-agent in late 2016 and spent his first four full pro seasons in the Guardians’ system, reaching Single-A.

The Astros acquired Diaz along with reliever Phil Maton at the 2021 trade deadline for outfielder Myles Straw. In 2022, Diaz was named the Astros’ Minor League Player of the Year.