Lewin Diaz happy to be back ‘home’ with Miami Marlins as 2021 season winds down
Lewin Diaz just finished his pregame routine at loanDepot park on Wednesday. He stretched, went through batting practice and caught up with teammates who he had been with sporadically throughout the season.
His smile and his first statement before retreating to the clubhouse said it all.
“I feel very well,” Diaz said, “to be back home.”
Diaz, the third-ranked first baseman prospect in all of baseball and the No. 11 overall prospect in the Marlins’ system according to MLB Pipeline, is back in the big leagues. The Marlins recalled him from Triple A Jacksonville after starting first baseman Jesus Aguilar went on the 10-day injured list with left knee inflammation. He started and batted sixth on Wednesday.
How long Diaz will stay with the Marlins is to be determined.
Regardless of that, Diaz now has an opportunity — hopefully an extended one — to show the Marlins what he can to at the big-league level as the 2021 season winds down.
“We knew we wanted to get an extended look at Lewin,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said, “so obviously this kind of sped that up.”
Diaz, 24, was hitting .299 at Triple A since August with six home runs, 13 RBI and 18 runs scored in 111 plate appearances over 28 games.
In 30 career games at the MLB level heading into Wednesday, Diaz had hit .139 with two doubles, three home runs, eight RBI and seven runs scored with 20 strikeouts.
The main adjustment he plans to make this time around in the big leagues?
“Staying relaxed and maintain that feeling of the game,” Diazz said. “I know how to play the game. I know how to play baseball, so just a matter of maintaining that [calmness] during every game.”
The Marlins all season have been toeing the line between wanting to see Diaz at the MLB level but also wanting him to get steady at-bats on a daily basis. The latter was tough to do in the big-leagues because Aguilar has been one of the team’s top offensive producers.
Aguilar entered Wednesday second in the National League with 93 RBI, but his production slipped over the past couple weeks as he began dealing with the knee injury. He hasn’t hit a home run since Aug. 15. His stat line in the 18 games since that day: .204 batting average (11 for 54) with two doubles, seven RBI and four runs scored.
Aguilar was a late scratch from Tuesday’s lineup because of the injury.
“He tried to swing before the game and just couldn’t swing,” Mattingly said postgame Tuesday. “He took like two swings in the cage and he couldn’t hit. Just listening to him, he said it’s been a few weeks going on, but he’s been pretty quiet about it.”
This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 5:43 PM.
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