Yusniel Diaz, OF, Los Angeles Dodgers
Who Is He?
If any team in baseball has gone big into the Cuban market, it’s the Dodgers. Their current 40-man major league roster has four guys from Cuba, and each team in the minor leagues has multiple players from Cuba on the team. This offseason, the Dodgers signed two young Cuban players, right-handed pitcher Yaisel Sierra and Diaz.
Diaz is still just 19 years old and won’t even turn 20 until October, yet the Dodgers were confident enough in his ability to start him at their high-A affiliate in the California League. He’s hit fairly well with a .286/.350/.473 line with 4 triples and 3 home runs in 24 games. He has struck out quite a bit, but after not playing organized ball for almost two years, some of that was to be expected.
Diaz has the best chance of being a guy who gets rated like Moncada going into next season. He has the kind of power the way Moncada has speed. Evaluators expected Diaz to be a guy with a good balance of speed and power, but he’s shown incredible power at times already this season, and he could explode in that area, possibly warranting a promotion to AA before the end of the season as a teenager.