Jordan Díaz

Jordan David Díaz Sandoval

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 190 lb.

• Debut September 18, 2022

• Born August 13, 2000 in Montería, Córdoba Colombia

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Biographical Information

Jordan Díaz played for the Colombian national team before making his major league debut in 2022.

He was signed by Oakland A's scout Jose Quintero in August 2016. He split the summer of 2017 between the DSL Athletics (.256/.295/.307 in 42 G; .889 FLD% at 3B) and the AZL Athletics (.185/.179/.185 in 8 G). In 2018, he batted .277/.371/.390 for the AZL Athletics, fielding .886 at the hot corner. He hit .143/.250/.143 and fielded .769 for Colombia in the 2018 U-23 Baseball World Cup.

Díaz moved up to the Vermont Lake Monsters in 2019, again fielding under .900 (.899) while showing more pop (.264/.307/.430, 17 2B, 9 HR, 47 RBI in 70 G). He was among the New York-Penn League leaders in RBI (tied Nic Ready for first), doubles (tied for fourth), hits (73, 4th, between Wilmer Reyes and Bryan Lavastida), extra-base hits (27, 3rd, behind Ready and Ezequiel Duran), total bases (119, 3rd, behind the same duo), homers (tied for 5th with Joe Genord) and slugging (10th). He also led the league's third basemen in putouts (33, tied with Nicholas Northcut), assists (100) and errors (15). Baseball America named him as the #8 prospect in the NYPL, between Duran and Ethan Hankins.

He played for his hometown Vaqueros de Montería in the 2020 Caribbean Series, the first Colombian League team to play in a Caribbean Series. He was 3 for 11 with a double and two RBI. The 2020 minor league season was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the Caimanes de Barranquilla in the 2021 Caribbean Series, he hit .368/.350/.526 with three doubles and four RBI in five games. He was among the Series leaders in average (tied Robinson Canó for 5th among those with 15+ PA), hits (7, tied for 6th with Canó, Héctor Gómez and Jonathan Araúz), doubles (tied Gómez and Robel García for 3rd), RBI (tied for 8th) and slugging (5th for those with 15+ PA). He was named the All-Star third baseman, joining Ronald Guzmán, Canó and Araúz on the All-Star infield. He was the first player from a Colombian team to make a Caribbean Series All-Star team.

Coming to a full-season team with the 2021 Lansing Lugnuts, he did not spend the whole season with them as he joined Colombia for the Americas Olympic Qualifier. His homer off Gabriel Moya in the 9th inning briefly tied it against Venezuela but Colombia could not hold on. It was his lone hit in ten at-bats in the event, though he walked once and did not make an error in four chances. He produced at a .288/.377/.484 clip with 13 homers for Lansing but defense remained poor at third (.875) and he began playing first sometimes. He was among the league leaders in average (4th, between Michael Massey and Jacob Hurtubise), slugging (4th), doubles (24, tied for 7th with Yonathan Perlaza), OPS (8th), extra-base hits (38, tied for 9th), hits (96, 10th) and total bases (161, 10th). He was named to the postseason All-Star team. Among A's farmhands, he tied T.J. Schofield-Sam for 9th with 96 hits, tied Pete Kozma and Lawrence Butler for 2nd in doubles, tied Jhonny Santos for 9th in homers, tied Vimael Machin for 6th with 161 total bases and was 8th in RBI. The A's added him to their 40-man roster. He also played for Colombia in two other events that year - the 2021 U-23 Baseball World Cup (.214/.281/.464, 2 HR, 7 RBI in 9 G, tied for 7th in RBI) as Colombia won Bronze and Junior Pan American Games (.308/.357/.615, 5 R in 4 G).

In 2022, he split the season between the AA Midland RockHounds and AAA Las Vegas Aviators, with a combined batting line of .326/.366/.515 in 120 games, with 34 doubles, 19 homers and 83 RBIs. He made his major league debut on September 18th, starting at first base against the Houston Astros. He went 1 for 3 in the 11-2 loss, striking out twice against Framber Valdez before singling off Phil Maton. Overall, he hit .265 in 15 games for the A's with no homers and 1 RBI. He started the 2023 season in Las Vegas then was called up to Oakland in mid-April after batting .273 in 12 games for the Aviators. He hit his first big league homer in his second game, against Will Smith of the Texas Rangers on April 21st then did not hit another until he had a career game on May 9th, when he homered three times against the New York Yankees. Playing second base, he went deep against Clarke Schmidt in the 4th, hit another solo shot off Albert Abreu in the 7th and ended his night's work with a two-run blast against Greg Weissert in the 8th. However, as was typical for a terrible A's team that year, it was all for naught as Oakland lost the game, 10-5. Hector Lopez was the only other second sacker in franchise history to ever have a three-homer game, back in its days as the Kansas City Athletics in 1958, while the last A's player to pull off the feat had been Khris Davis in 2016.

Further Reading

• Mike Fitzpatrick (Associated Press): "A's rookie Jordan Diaz hits 3 homers at Yankee Stadium", Yahoo! News, May 10, 2023. [1]
• Martín Gallegos: "A's unveil homer hammer -- and Diaz hammers 3 homers: Childhood spent watching Yanks in Colombia comes full circle in Bronx for prospect", mlb.com, May 10, 2023. [2]

Related Sites

• Jordan Diaz on mlb.com
• BR Register page