Players · D · C · 2026
Yainer Diaz
- Age
- 28
- B/T
- R/R
- Height
- 5' 11"
- Weight
- 195 lb
- Number
- #21
- Born
- September 21, 1998 in Azua, Dominican Republic
- MLB debut
- September 2, 2022
- Salary, 2026
- $4.5M
- dbWAR
- 8.9 5 season(s)
- PA
- 351
- AVG
- .281
- OBP
- .311
- SLG
- .458
- wRC+
- 113 100 = avg
Yainer Diaz is a catcher for the Houston Astros. So far in 2026 he has hit 14 home runs and knocked in 44 RBIs, notching 94 hits across 351 plate appearances in 91 games. His batting average is .281, 15.4% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .311 clip and slugged .458, for an OPS of .769, 7.0% higher than the league mark of .719 — 5th of 15 on his team, and 118th of 462 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 89.1 mph off the bat, hit 38.4% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 6.0% of them and made contact on 77.8% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 113 wRC+ puts his offence 13% above average. That comes to 1.9 dbWAR — +4.3 runs with the bat, +0.4 for the ballpark, -1.3 on the bases, -0.8 on double plays, +5.0 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.
League context
Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.
How the WAR is built
Runs above replacement, 2026. These terms sum to +18.4 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR. There is no fielding term.
WAR by season
Batting
Standard and advanced, by season.
| Trend | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | HOU | 91 | 351 | 94 | 14 | 44 | 0 | 12 | 55 | .281 | .311 | .458 | .177 | .300 | 3.4% | 15.7% | .333 | +4.3 | 113 | 1.9 | |
| 2025 | HOU | 143 | 567 | 139 | 20 | 70 | 1 | 20 | 95 | .256 | .284 | .417 | .161 | .277 | 3.5% | 16.8% | .301 | -6.8 | 91 | 1.6 | |
| 2024 | HOU | 148 | 619 | 175 | 16 | 84 | 2 | 24 | 107 | .299 | .325 | .441 | .142 | .338 | 3.9% | 17.3% | .330 | +9.1 | 111 | 3.1 | |
| 2023 | HOU | 104 | 377 | 100 | 23 | 60 | 0 | 11 | 74 | .282 | .308 | .538 | .256 | .292 | 2.9% | 19.6% | .354 | +10.8 | 125 | 2.3 | |
| 2022 | HOU | 4 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .125 | .222 | .250 | .125 | .167 | 11.1% | 22.2% | .221 | -0.7 | 36 | -0.1 |
Platoon splits
How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | 94 | 89 | 26 | 2 | 4 | 18 | .292 | .330 | .438 | .337 | 19.1% |
| vs RHP | 257 | 245 | 68 | 12 | 8 | 37 | .278 | .304 | .465 | .332 | 14.4% |
Spray chart
Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.
Loading 281 batted balls…
Contact quality
How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 281 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.
- Barrel rate
- 6.0% 17 barrels
- Exit velocity
- 89.1 mph average
- Max exit velo
- 110.3 mph, hardest hit
- Hard hit
- 38.4% 95 mph or better
- Sweet spot
- 30.6% 8–32° launch
- Launch angle
- 7.4° average
A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.
Hot and cold zones
Batting average by pitch location, 2026.
Situational hitting
How Yainer Diaz hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.
| Situation | PA | AB | H | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All situations | 351 | — | — | — | — | — | — | .281 | .311 | .458 | .333 |
| Bases empty | 199 | 190 | 47 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 32 | .247 | .281 | .463 | .321 |
| Runner on first | 66 | 65 | 24 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 9 | .369 | .379 | .585 | .415 |
| Runners on | 152 | 144 | 47 | 4 | 33 | 6 | 23 | .326 | .349 | .451 | .349 |
| RISP | 86 | 79 | 23 | 1 | 24 | 5 | 14 | .291 | .326 | .342 | .299 |
Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.
Head to head
Put Yainer Diaz beside up to three others.
Or read one already written — Yainer Diaz against:
Similar players
Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.
wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.