Baltimore Orioles: Eastern League Names Oriole Prospect Yusniel Diaz Player of the Week

The Eastern League announced on Monday that Bowie Baysox outfielder and Baltimore Orioles prospect Yusniel Diaz was named the Player of the Week.

Bowie Baysox (AA) outfielder Yusniel Diaz is on a tear, and it has not gone unnoticed.  On Monday it was announced that the Baltimore Orioles second-ranked prospect per MLB Pipeline was named the Eastern League’s Player of the Week for the week of June 10th through June 16th.

In six games, Diaz, a native of Havana Cuba, hit .364 with two doubles, three home runs, 12 RBI’s, seven runs scored, four walks and a  .864 slugging percentage.

He had at least one RBI in each of Bowie’s six games last week and reached base safely in five.  Three of the week’s games were multi-hit games, and Diaz also enjoyed a three-game home run streak.

His first home run was a 2-run shot that walked off a win against New Hampshire (Toronto Blue Jays) in the 10th inning on June 12th.

The next night he hit a three-run homer in the second inning in a 9-4 win over New Hampshire.  He would go deep for a third straight game with a solo shot in the eighth inning of a win against Trenton (New York Yankees).

Diaz’s performance for the week led the entire Eastern League in home runs, RBI, total bases (18) and slugging percentage while it tied for the league lead in runs scored.

Considered the centerpiece of the trade that sent Manny Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2018, Diaz has hit .275/ .362/ .600/ .962 in 40 at-bats over his past ten games.  In that time he has scored 12 runs and hit two doubles, a triple and three home runs with 13 RBI and 6 walks.

Diaz missed a little over a month with what was presumed to be a hamstring injury.  He returned to the Baysox following a six-game rehab stint in Frederick (A-Adv.).

Since returning to the Bowie, Diaz has hit .275/ .353/ .568 in 11 games.  Prior to the injury, the 22-year-old outfielder hit .225/ .313/ .338 in 20 games with seven runs scored, three doubles, one triple, one, and seven RBI’s.

Despite missing a month due to injury, Diaz is among the top-5 on the Baysox in home runs, RBI and slugging percentage while he is top-10 in games played, at-bats, runs scored, hits, triples, total bases, walks, batting average, on base percentage and OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage).

The Baysox went 5-1 over the week that Diaz earned the award, so it is apparent that as Diaz goes, so do the Baysox.  Performances such as this are necessary to justify Diaz’s inclusion in the Machado trade to the fan base.

The honor is well-deserved, and the hope is that it is the first of many in 2019 for the Baltimore Orioles prospect.