The Tampa Bay Rays are not sneaking up on anyone. Not anymore. Between a 13-game winning streak to start the season, their stature atop baseball's best division and 22-year-old Wander Franco's affirmation that he's a superstar-in-the-making and an MVP candidate right now, the Rays have shed their nerdy Clark Kent glasses — or at least added a cape.
. That level of plate discipline — which puts Diaz in the realm of Juan Soto, Mike Trout and Brandon Nimmo — combined with his ability to put the bat on the ball gave Diaz a rock-solid baseline that was in many ways more precious than home run power in today's MLB. As long as he maintained that, he would be a big-leaguer.
The drumbeat of calls for him to add power quieted as Diaz established himself as a productive player, but they never went away.
“Being comfortable with what he was good at and just staying within that box is something where he knew he was going to make a lot of money,” Mottola said. “Now that the contract came, it was, ‘OK, let’s explore where your ceiling is. Let’s make some mistakes and see if we can get more power.’”The way Diaz tells it, his uptick in home run power is about pitch selection — a remarkable claim for someone who was already one of baseball's choosiest hitters.
That means Diaz, who builds his game off his expertise in that arena, has to push himself to get just a touch reckless, in a calculated way, in game situations in which he is likely to get a pitch he can drive.
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