WEST SACRAMENTO -- Yandy Díaz didn’t need to say much Monday night to change the mood at the plate. He just pointed at Junior Caminero and sent a simple message from second base: calm down.
That was enough.
With the Rays trailing the Athletics 6-2 in the top of the eighth inning at Sutter Health Park, Díaz stood on second, Jonathan Aranda was on first and nobody was out when Caminero came up in a pressure spot. Díaz’s gesture was clear, and Caminero responded immediately, launching the first pitch he saw for a three-run homer that sliced the deficit to one and set up Tampa Bay’s 10-6 comeback win.
“That was a moment where I kind of took Cami by the hand and was trying to get him to be patient up at the plate, breathe, live in the moment, live in the at-bat,” Díaz said through Rays interpreter Kevin Vera. “That’s how I help.”
That sequence said plenty about why Díaz has become such a steadying force for an American League-best Rays team full of younger players. He’s not just producing runs. He’s helping shape the way the lineup behaves when the game gets tense.
“To steer the ship, you’ve got to have a good captain,” Díaz said.
The Rays have theirs in a hitter who keeps stacking impressive seasons and still seems to fly a little under the radar. Díaz owns a career .292 batting average and enough pop to change games in a hurry, and this week he did both. He opened Monday with a leadoff homer, homered again on Tuesday, and sparked rallies on Monday and Wednesday with base hits, including the key eighth-inning knock in Tampa Bay’s comeback on Monday.
“With Yandy, I think if we could pick one person to start any inning, it would be him,” manager Kevin Cash said.
For a player who first burst onto the Rays’ radar in 2019, it can feel like the timeline has moved fast. Back then, Díaz posted an .816 OPS in 79 games and hit two home runs in the AL Wild Card Game against the same Athletics team he faced this week in West Sacramento. Díaz said on Wednesday he will never forget that performance.
Now he’s a 10-year veteran who turned 35 on Saturday, and his place in Rays history keeps growing. He’s staying with Tampa Bay in 2027 after his 500th plate appearance of the year - an eighth-inning sacrifice fly Monday - triggered his $13 million vesting option. His opposite-field homer on Tuesday pushed him past Ben Zobrist for sole possession of third place on the Rays’ all-time hits list, and he added two more hits as Tampa Bay finished a 9-0 road trip out West.
Through Wednesday
“I’m really happy,” Díaz said of the milestone. “Now my name’s in the conversation with some of the Tampa Bay greats.
I feel a lot of pride and a lot of satisfaction being here. It’s a good feeling.”
The recent surge also served as a reset after a rough patch by Díaz’s standards. He hit just .213 with a .594 OPS in July, a stretch that would count as a slump for most players and still feels like one to him.
Rays right-hander Drew Rasmussen, who has been around Díaz since 2021, said he has long believed the veteran is “the best pure hitter I’ve ever played with.” He also knows Díaz well enough to laugh at the way he describes his own struggles.
“What makes me laugh about Yandy is that he’ll tell you he’s struggling, and you look at the box score and he was 1-for-3 with a walk,” Rasmussen said. “The next day he was 1-for-4, then he was 1-for-2 with two walks.
And he’ll tell you, ‘Man, I just don’t feel right. I don’t feel right.’
You’re like, ‘I don’t know. Seems to be going OK.’”
Rasmussen said Díaz’s value goes far beyond the box score. He sees it every day in the dugout, in the way teammates respond to him and in the respect he commands.
“He’s the best,” Rasmussen said. “If you just look at our dugout, you can see how he interacts with all the guys -- how much everyone respects him, how much everyone appreciates him, how much everyone loves him. In all honesty, he’s one of the best, and it’s just incredible to have him with us.”
Díaz may say he “hasn’t done a lot of great things” in the captain role he described, but the Rays clearly see it differently. On and off the field, he’s become the kind of player others follow.
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