Welcome back to yet another edition of Top Dynasty Keepers. On the field there has been some great baseball played and teams that are proving they are for real this year, meaning there will be a host of good pennant races shaping up for September.
There have also been some players who are proving they should be top dynasty keepers.
This week I want to visit with a player I highlighted earlier this season and one who is new to the Top Dynasty Keepers spotlight. The first player I’ll talk about is Houston catcher Yainer Diaz, while Ezequiel Tovar of the Rockies is the second player.
Diaz is a player I featured back in June. But I want to circle back to him because he is apparently not receiving the love I think he should. Despite being one of the best hitting backstops in the majors, he is available in 44% of Yahoo leagues, 79% of ESPN leagues and 40% of Fantrax leagues.
That doesn’t make any sense, because he has basically been an everyday player since June. While only appearing in 10 games in April and 12 in May, he played in 21 games in both June and July and now 19 games in August.
Yainer Diaz
STATISTICS VS. MLB CATCHERS (Minimum 200 Plate Appearances = 37 catchers)
| G | HR | RBI | ISO | AVG | OBP | SLG | BB% | SO% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 83 | 18 | 46 | .252 | .287 | .305 | .538 | 2.3 | 18.2 | |
| Rank | 27th | 5th | 13th | 2nd | 1st | 21st | 1st | 37th | 6th |
I am also circling back to Diaz because he simply must be on your team due to what he does with the bat. Look at the table above. There are 37 catchers who have 200 or more plate appearances this season. Despite Diaz ranking 27th among those catchers in games played, he ranks fifth in homers, second in ISO, and first in both average and slugging percentage.
And since getting regular playing time, Diaz has been productive at the plate, hitting 16 of his 18 homers and driving in 41 of his 46 RBI. In June he slashed .310/.314/.583 with five home runs and 12 RBI in 21 games. July his slash line dipped a bit (.264/.299/.556) but this month he has five homers and 15 RBI while slashing .338/.352/.618.
His 162-game pace (which includes eight at-bats he got last season) is a .282/.302/.531 slash line with 33 homes and 86 RBI. SO WHY HE IS NOT ROSTERED IN MORE LEAGUES?
Yes, his 2.3% walk rate is last for catchers and thus his OBP will remain low. But while he doesn’t walk, he also limits his strikeouts as his 18.2% strikeout rate is the sixth lowest among the 37 catchers in these rankings. And now there is a bonus when it comes to Diaz – he also qualifies as a first baseman (at least in Yahoo leagues) with seven starts and eight games played at first.
If for some reason Diaz is still available in your league, snag him and be happy. You will love his production at the plate for years to come.
Ezequiel Tovar
| YEAR | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | .212 | .257 | .333 | 57 |
| 2023 | 14 | 57 | 7 | 21 | 128 | .261 | .298 | .431 | 86 |
| 162 AVERAGE | 19 | 75 | 9 | 29 | 173 | .257 | .295 | .425 | 84 |
In 2017, the Rockies plucked Tovar out of Venezuela with an $800,000 signing bonus. Starting his career in the Dominican Summer League in 2018, Tovar played in both the Rookie and low Class-A levels in 2019 before COVID wiped out the 2020 minor league season, leaving the shortstop to work out at the team’s alternate site all year.
Only 19-years-old in 2021, Tovar played at the Class A and High-A levels and slashed .287/.322/.475 with 15 homers, 72 RBI, and 24 steals. Tovar then started the 2022 season at Double A before ending the year with the Rockies. At Double-A Hartford and Triple-A Albuquerque, Tovar hit 14 homers and drove in 49 runs with 17 steals in 71 games while slashing .319/.387/.540. He then earned a promotion to Colorado and appeared in nine games.
You can see from the table above that he didn’t exactly set the world on fire in his nine games with the Rockies. He slashed only .212/.257/.333 and had nine strikeouts in 33 at-bats, but he proved what he could do on the field in the minors and entered the season ranked as the 17th best prospect by Baseball America, 25th by MLB Pipeline and 21st by Baseball Prospectus.
Getting His Sea Legs – 2023 Splits
| MONTH | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| March/April | 0 | 8 | 0 | .214 | .263 | .303 |
| May | 3 | 14 | 2 | .266 | .310 | .457 |
| June | 5 | 17 | 2 | .323 | .333 | .552 |
| July | 2 | 8 | 1 | .216 | .242 | .341 |
| August | 4 | 10 | 2 | .282 | .341 | .500 |
Despite the lack of success during his brief stint with the Rockies last season, the team saw no reason for him to spend more time in the minors. That is due in large part to the fact that Tovar is an excellent defensive shortstop. In 448 chances, he has committed only six errors this season.
At the plate, however, Tovar’s first full season in the majors hasn’t been a smooth ride. He was pretty horrid the first month of the season, but outside of a slump in July, he has more than held his own against major league pitching. He slashed .266/.310/.457 in May with three dingers and 14 RBI and followed that up with five round trippers and 17 RBI in June with a .323/.333/.552 slash line.
After his July swoon, he has rebounded this month to put up a nice .282/.341/.500 slash line with four homers and 10 RBI. Tovar needs to cut down on his 27% strikeout rate and could work on walking more (4.4% rate), but he is only going to get stronger, meaning his power numbers should only get better. He also has some decent speed with seven steals, though he has been caught five times.
Only Going To Get Better
I won’t tell you that Tovar is going to be a Top-10 shortstop next season, but he has the ability to be a 20-homer, 80-RBI player who puts up a decent slash line. That translates to a solid player who is going to help you across the board.
He is available in 55% of Yahoo leagues and 87% of ESPN leagues – so go and grab him, especially if you have room on your roster to have a developing shortstop.
