Isan Diaz admits he lost his confidence the past 2 years. He also insists it’s back now
On the day Isan Diaz arrived in the Majors, he was briefly the most exciting hitter in MLB.
He debuted for the Miami Marlins deep into the summer of 2019, for a last-place team playing out the string and starting to give some of its top prospects their first Major League shots. Diaz was one of those — the No. 5 prospect in the organization at the time, according to MLB.com — and he happened to begin his career in New York against Jacob deGrom. In the second at-bat of his career, he clobbered a 422-foot home run off the New York Mets’ star starting pitcher, while his father was being interviewed on Fox Sports Florida.
It was a thrilling moment for one of baseball’s most promising infielders and one he hasn’t been able to replicate often in his rocky, two-year career.
“Obviously,” Diaz said, “I went through some adversity.”
He batted just .173 with a .566 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in 201 plate appearances as a rookie and followed it up by playing in just seven games last year. He now admits he started to lose confidence in his ability. Still, the Marlins are giving him every chance to win their second base job this spring with the hope he can still be their second baseman of the future.
A little more than a week into Grapefruit League play, Diaz is finally putting together results worthy of a starter, with two extra-base hits in his last two games.
“He’s starting to get in a little bit of a rhythm,” manager Don Mattingly said Sunday after he tripled in Port St. Lucie.
Diaz saw 19 pitches in three at-bats Sunday against the Mets, with the triple, a hard-hit ground out and a near homer he just pulled foul. On Monday, he added a two-run double — a 99.9-mph line drive into the right-field corner — in Miami’s 7-7 tie with the St. Louis Cardinals at Roger Dean Stadium. He also drew a walk later in the game.
As he competes with middle infielder Jazz Chisholm to start at second, Diaz is recapturing some of the confidence he lost in his first two seasons with the Marlins.
Diaz, at one time, was considered the No. 65 prospect in baseball and he was one of the centerpieces Miami got back from the Milwaukee Brewers in the Christian Yelich trade. While outfielder Lewis Brinson struggled through 2018 and 2019, Diaz emerged as the Marlins’ best chance to salvage something from the lopsided exchange. He hit .305 with a .973 OPS in 102 games with Triple A New Orleans before the Marlins called him up. It was the start of a frustrating 14 months.
His disappointing debut season could be written off, to a degree. Diaz has a history of struggling early when he arrives at a new level, so Miami looked at him as its favorite to start at second for the 2020 MLB season. Instead, the COVID-19 pandemic began and Diaz opted out of the season, then he opted back in a month later and then he got hurt after just 22 at-bats.
In the meantime, Chisholm, still a top-100 prospect, became a fixture at second base as the Marlins reached the MLB postseason for the first time since 2003.
“I’m not going to lie and say here that I was confident in myself,” Diaz said. “I was trying to find who I was at the plate.”
It’s only spring training, but March has been encouraging — even before he was collecting hits.
Diaz started 0 for 6 before going 1 for 3 on Sunday and 1 for 2 on Monday in Jupiter. Mattingly said Diaz’s three at-bats Sunday were “his best at-bats of the spring,” but he added he thought Diaz was having good at-bats even before the hits. After another hit Monday, Mattingly continued to praise the young hitter.
“His at-bats were good today,” he said. “He looks good right now.”
While the Marlins haven’t explicitly outlined a plan at second base, the winner of the competition will get the nod on Opening Day and the loser will likely head to the minors to get consistent plate appearances.
Chisholm is “electric,” Mattingly said, and, as the sport’s No. 68 prospect, projects as a long-term starter somewhere in the infield. Diaz, still only 24, is eager to prove it’s too soon to write him off, though.
“I feel right now that I’m getting closer back to where I was when I was in Triple A with the Baby Cakes and that’s what I’m kind of aiming for,” Diaz said, “to get that vibe, to put those good ABs together and do damage with runners in scoring position.”
