Rockies Place Elias Diaz On Injured List

The Rockies announced they’ve placed catcher Elias Díaz on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 11, due to a strained left calf. Colorado reinstated Nolan Jones from the IL in a corresponding transaction.

It’s not clear how long Díaz is expected to be out of action. His injury won’t have much of an effect on the standings with Colorado sitting at the bottom of the NL West. An extended absence could have some implications for the trade deadline, though. Díaz has played well enough to be a rather straightforward deadline trade candidate. Last year’s All-Star Game MVP is hitting .303/.352/.439 across 216 plate appearances.

Díaz is not likely to maintain a .350 batting average on balls in play. Yet he doesn’t need to hit .300 to be a capable hitter for teams looking to upgrade behind the plate. He’s performing well both at and away from Coors Field and has a modest 17.6% strikeout rate. Díaz has also fared well on the other side of the ball, throwing out 11 of 37 (29.7%) attempted basestealers. While pitch framing metrics have been down on his receiving skills for most of his career, Díaz has gotten plus grades in that regard in 2024.

The Rockies are paying Díaz a $6MM salary in the final season of a three-year extension. Unless Colorado extends him again in the next couple months, he’ll hit free agency next winter. Teams like the Cubs, Rays and Guardians could look for catching help around the deadline. The Phillies lost J.T. Realmuto for a month after he underwent meniscus surgery. Philadelphia doesn’t need to make a significant catching acquisition at the moment, but any kind of delay in Realmuto’s rehab process could change that calculus. The Rox wouldn’t get a huge trade return, but a healthy Díaz would be the best rental backstop available if the Blue Jays hold Danny Jansen.

Jacob Stallings, himself a possible deadline candidate for a contender that needs a backup catcher, will get the majority of the playing time with Díaz out. Colorado plans to use Hunter Goodman as their #2 option, tweets Patrick Lyons. Goodman only has one major league start behind the dish. He was a catcher at the University of Memphis and has started 73 games there in parts of four minor league campaigns. Questions about his glove have pushed him primarily to first base or the corner outfield.