Rockies place 2023 All-Star Game MVP on waivers

The Rockies placed veteran catcher Elias Diaz on waivers Wednesday afternoon, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic. The process will be resolved on Friday. Diaz is eligible to play while he’s on waivers, though that’s immaterial with Colorado having a day off Thursday.

It’s possible (but not guaranteed) that this marks the end of his four-plus year stint in Denver. Waivers are irrevocable, so the Rockies cannot retract the placement if another team makes a claim. If he goes unclaimed, the Rox could simply retain him on the MLB roster for the last six weeks of the season.

Colorado reportedly expressed openness to moving Diaz before the trade deadline. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman wrote at the time that the Rox weren’t planning to explore another extension with the impending free agent. Since the Rox are out of playoff contention, there was little reason for them not to try to get some kind of young talent in return. Rosenthal writes that the Rockies didn’t find any team with significant interest in a trade, though, with Colorado ultimately holding him past the deadline.

There’s no longer any chance for the Rockies to get anything in return for Diaz. MLB did away with the old August revocable waiver trade system back in 2019. Any player who has been on a 40-man roster during the season cannot be traded after the deadline. The only benefit to Colorado in placing Diaz on waivers is possible cost savings.

The 33-year-old catcher is playing this year on a $6M salary. There’ll be a little over $1.4M to be paid out between Friday and the end of the season. A claiming team would take that entire sum off Colorado’s books. Teams cannot negotiate with the Rockies to pay down a portion of the remaining money. A waiver acquisition is an all or nothing move. Diaz would be eligible for postseason play if another club put in a claim since he’d be in their organization before the start of September.

Diaz had the best season of his career in 2023. He connected on 14 homers with a .267/.316/.409 slash line over a career-high 526 plate appearances. Diaz popped another home run in the All-Star Game and collected the Midsummer Classic’s MVP award. His offensive production has taken a step back this season, as he’s hitting .270/.315/.378 over 84 contests. That’s still reasonable production for a No. 2 catcher and Diaz has had a strong year defensively. He has cut down nearly 28% of stolen base attempts and has slightly above-average pitch framing grades from Statcast.

Clubs tend to be reluctant to acquire catchers midseason — Danny Jansen and Carson Kelly were the only backstops traded at the deadline — because of the challenge of quickly learning a new pitching staff’s strengths and weaknesses. Still, Diaz’s production this season would be an upgrade on what some teams have gotten out of their backup options.

Waiver priority is inverse order of the standings without regard to American or National League. The White Sox have the top priority, followed by the Marlins. Neither team is going to put in a claim, since there’s no incentive for them to take on the salary of an impending free agent.

The Cubs, who are 5.5 games out of the final wild-card spot in the NL, are relying on a catching tandem of Miguel Amaya and Tomas Nido. Public estimates have them right on the border of the luxury tax threshold, though. It’s hard to believe they’d claim Diaz for a very long shot playoff push if doing so moved them past that line. The Rays have fallen 6.5 back of a wild-card spot and might not consider a claim worthwhile. The Mariners, Padres and Diamondbacks are a little further down the waiver order but could be potential fits.

A claim would allow Diaz to participate in a playoff race while shaving a bit of money from Colorado’s books. It’d presumably set the stage for the Rox to take their first look at prospect Drew Romo, whom they view as the catcher of the future. They’ll need to add Romo to the 40-man roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft by next offseason. The 35th overall pick in the 2020 draft, Romo is hitting .297/.339/.499 this year with Triple-A Albuquerque.