Rox Pile
Fansided

Colorado Rockies: This is their perfect lineup for the 2021 season

By Noah Yingling

DENVER, CO - AUGUST 16: A detail of the scoreboard honoring the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues on display during a game between the Colorado Rockies and the Texas Rangers at Coors Field on August 16, 2020 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - AUGUST 16: A detail of the scoreboard honoring the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues on display during a game between the Colorado Rockies and the Texas Rangers at Coors Field on August 16, 2020 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
9 of 10
Next
Colorado Rockies catcher Elias Diaz
SCOTTSDALE, AZ – FEBRUARY 19: Elias Diaz of the Colorado Rockies poses for a portrait at the Colorado Rockies Spring Training Facility at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on February 19, 2020 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Rob Tringali/Getty Images) /

Hitting eighth in the Rockies lineup would be catcher Elias Diaz. Diaz was re-signed by the Rockies this offseason to a one-year deal to avoid arbitration and with the team cutting Tony Wolters and Drew Butera becoming a free agent, it looks likely that Diaz will become the Rockies’ primary catcher.

In 2020, which was his first with the Rockies, the former Pittsburgh Pirate was the Rockies third catcher but as the season carried on, Diaz got more playing time simply because he was better offensively and defensively than both Wolters and Butera. However, that’s not a very high bar as all three of them were well below league average on offense, and Diaz and Butera were league average, at best, defensively.

Diaz played in 26 games for the Rockies and he hit .235/.288/.353 with an OPS+ of 62 when neither Wolters nor Butera had an OPS+ above 41. Defensively, Diaz was at league average with DRS and with Runs Extra Strikes (which is the main pitch framing metric). However, in 2019, with the Pirates, he had -21 DRS so if he is like that defensively, that will be a problem.

The Rockies hope that he will return to his 2018 offensive stats when he hit .286/.339/.452 with an OPS+ of 116 in 82 games. If that returns for Diaz, he will be moving up in the lineup and if the DH doesn’t stay in 2021, he would move up a spot to seventh anyway.

Home/Colorado Rockies News