HOUSTON -- Before every game, Yainer Diaz keeps the same promise to himself and to the brother who helped shape his path to the majors.
Once the starting pitcher finishes his last warmup throw, Diaz fires the ball to second base, then bends down behind home plate and traces the initials of his late brother, Issael, into the dirt with his finger. He finishes the moment by looking upward and saying, “Thanks.”
For Diaz, the routine is more than habit. It’s a way to stay connected to the reason he’s here, in his third season as the Astros’ starting catcher after reaching the big leagues in 2022, the same year Houston won its second World Series. Diaz, 27, broke through in 2023 as Martin Maldonado’s backup, putting up a .846 OPS and finishing fifth in American League Rookie of the Year voting.
Issael Lopez never saw that rise. He died of cancer in 2022, just before Diaz made his Major League debut with the Astros on Sept. 2, 2022.
Through interpreter Otto Loor, Diaz said, “I really don’t have the words for the way he would be feeling right now, but there’s a lot of times when I go to sleep and I think about how proud of me [he is] right now,”
Lopez was 11 years older than Diaz and acted more like a father than a brother. His death hit hard, especially because he had been such a force in Diaz’s baseball life. Diaz had stopped playing around age 13 while living in the Dominican Republic, and it was Lopez who pushed him to pick the game back up.
“When I started playing, he wasn’t playing any more but he always would tell me, ‘You’re young, you’re going make it,’” Diaz said. "Because this was a dream of both of ours.”
Diaz’s road to Houston wasn’t direct. After several tryouts and some interest from the Astros, he signed with Cleveland as an international free agent for $25,000 in 2016 at age 18.
He made his pro debut the following season in the Dominican Summer League. On July 30, 2021, the Astros acquired him from Cleveland along with reliever Phil Maton, sending outfielder Myles Straw the other way.
That deal was built with 2022 in mind, with Maton bolstering Houston’s bullpen and Straw’s exit creating an opening for Chas McCormick in center field. But the Astros also saw real upside in Diaz. When the trade happened, he was batting .314 at Single-A Lynchburg with 19 doubles, five homers, 50 RBIs and an .821 OPS in 61 games.
That belief echoed what Lopez had always seen in his younger brother.
“He motivated me to be here,” Diaz said. “He made me understand the type of player I really was and the type of talent that I had.”
Diaz has carried that presence with him in small ways, too. He once had “Issael” written on the front collar of his catcher’s gear, another quiet tribute to the brother who never stopped believing in him.
“It was a beautiful relationship,” Diaz said. “He treated me like he was my second father, and he gave me a lot of advice on how to be where I’m at right now.”
The loss still leaves a space that won’t be filled. Diaz knows that, and he lives with it the only way he can: by showing up, doing the job, and offering one more glance skyward before the game begins.
“I just think there’s nothing that will ever fill that void of having someone that close pass away,” Diaz said. “There’s nothing that will remedy the pain that one goes through, but I think life is going to continue, and you just have to keep getting out there and doing whatever you’re going to do.”
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