Ranking The Rockies: 22 Jairo Diaz

We at BSN Denver are running a series where we rank how valuable each of the Colorado Rockies’ 51 players was to the team in 2015. Value was calculated by statistics, viewing, and how memorable each player’s contributions were. The rankings will be from last to first, you may view the full rankings (here)

Player: Jairo Diaz

Stats: 21 G, 19 IP, 0-1, 2.37 ERA, 1.158 WHIP, 3.56 FIP, 2oo ERA+, 8.53 K/9, 2.84 BB/9, 7 Holds, 0.2 WAR

Big Moment: Oct 3, the Rockies are in San Francisco visiting the Giants. Trailing 3-2, Walt Weiss gives the eighth to Diaz. Facing the 2-3-4 hitters, the young hard-throwing righty strikes out the side in 13 pitches. Although the Rockies couldn’t get anything going in the ninth and lost the game, the 24-year old showed he had exactly what the Rockies were looking for, strikeout stuff.

Season Recap: He came over last offseason from the Angles in the Josh Rutledge trade. The Venezuela native is a former catcher who got his first action in the bigs before the trade to the Rockies. In 2015, he spent most of the season with the Isotopes playing 47 games. In his 55 innings pitched in Triple-A, he had a 4.58 ERA with a 1.600 WHIP, striking out 50 and walking 37 while recording eight saves. Diaz’s strikeout to walk ratio regressed big time in the minors this year. His average speed of  97.5 MPH on his fastball was going to be a huge addition to the Rockies bullpen, but he had trouble sorting things out in the Pacific Coast League. Once called up in September, he proved to be one of the best Rockies relief options.

What’s Ahead: His control needs to improve, but his future, like his fastball is good. Diaz has a slider for a secondary pitch and he did throw it more in 2015, but it still needs some improvement if it is going to be used at the level he wants it to be used at. Diaz will most likely compete for backend role in for the 2016 Rockies bullpen.