On-Base Skills Put Diaz Closer To Majors

CLEVELAND—While first-round picks Bradley Zimmer and Clint Frazier get most of the attention among the position players in the Indians system, third baseman Yandy Diaz led all of the organization’s full-season minor leaguers in hitting in 2015.

Diaz, 24, hit a combined .309 at Double-A Akron and Triple-A Columbus. He spent most of the season at Akron, where in 476 at-bats he hit .315/.412/.408 with seven home runs and 55 RBIs.

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The righthanded-hitting Diaz was signed out of Cuba in September 2013 for $300,000.

“Yandy has made solid progress over his two years,” Indians farm director Carter Hawkins said. “Offensively, he has a knack to find the barrel and has the strength to drive the ball to all fields. As he matures as a hitter, he’ll likely turn some of those hard singles into hard doubles and home runs.”

At Akron Diaz led the Eastern League with a .412 OBP. He was also fourth in the EL with a .819 OPS. He was named to the league’s midseason and postseason all-star teams.

Defensively he’s still a work in progress, but Hawkins said the organization is pleased with his development. Diaz made 11 errors in 74 games at Carolina in 2014, and 21 errors in 132 games at Akron in 2015.

“Third base was probably the position he played the least before we signed him, yet he has worked to become one of the better defenders in our system,” Hawkins said.

Giovanny Urshela made his big league debut with the Indians at third base last season, but Urshela has had an injury-plagued last couple of years. In his 81 games with the Indians in 2015 Urshela was very impressive defensively, but hit just .225/.279/.330.

The Indians went into the offseason hoping to upgrade at third base, although club officials say they are by no means giving up on Urshela. Next in line among the internal options could be Diaz, although it’s more likely he’ll spend the bulk of 2016 at Columbus.

“Overall for Yandy it’s been an impressive transition into American baseball, and we’re excited to watch his continued progress,” Hawkins said.

SMOKE SIGNALS

• Righthander Cody Anderson, who had a 3.05 ERA in 15 starts as a rookie in 2015, had an emergency appendectomy on Dec. 15. Anderson’s expected recovery time was between two and four weeks.

• Righthanders Joba Chamberlain and Felipe Paulino and outfielder Robbie Grossman signed minor league contracts with invitations to major league training camp.