The Rays and Yandy Díaz have worked out a mini extension of sorts. The club announced that it has preemptively picked up his 2026 club option, adding a 2027 vesting option that is based on 2026 performance thresholds. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported the news prior to the official announcement. The full details of the new agreement for the ACES client have not yet been publicly reported.
Back in January of 2023, the Rays and Díaz agreed to a three-year, $24MM extension with a club option for 2026. He had just had his first arbitration season in 2022 and he was set to go through the process twice more. That deal bought out those two final arb years and one free agent year, while the option gave the Rays the chance to extend their window of control with Díaz by yet another season. He made $6MM in 2023, $8MM last year and will be making $10MM this year. The 2026 club option was set at $12MM with no buyout.
Over the course of the deal, Díaz has continued to hit, though the first year was far better than the second. In 2023, he hit 22 home runs and slashed .330/.410/.522 for a wRC+ of 163. His .367 batting average on balls in play was helping him out a bit, but he drew walks at a 10.8% clip and only struck out 15.7% of the time. Last year, his walk rate fell to 8.1% and he only hit 14 homers. His BABIP normalized somewhat to .314. The result was a .281/.341/.414 line and 120 wRC+. His defensive grades at first base also slid a bit. FanGraphs considered him to be worth 5.0 wins above replacement in 2023 but just 1.9 fWAR last year.
Without details on the 2027 option, it’s difficult to assess what the trade-off is here. Díaz is now 33 years old and will turn 34 in August. The Rays could have waited to see how he performed in 2025 before picking up the 2026 option. By locking it in now, they are presumably hoping to benefit down the line somehow. Perhaps that suggests 2027 is some kind of club/vesting option which will allow the club to extend its window of control over Díaz by another year. Perhaps the salary on that 2027 season will be on the lower end.
If that is the case, then Díaz is perhaps sacrificing a bit of future earning power. But the trade-off for doing so would be that he’s guaranteeing himself another $12MM today. That would protect him against a further decline in performance during the 2025 season. Under his previous contract structure, a bad 2025 campaign would have led to his option being declined and him heading to free agency with no buyout. Now he has the $12MM already locked in.
The Tampa Rays are taking a lot of flak recently, but they sure do seem to understand and execute their business model extremely well.
Rays are gonna Ray. I think they’ll be a better team this season. They may have had a down year last year, but watch them go on a five-year run of making the playoffs.
I doubt it. They”ll be playing in Florida, outside in the summer. They’d be zapped by the 4th.
So will the other team that’ll be on the same field.. it’ll be pretty even.
I agree. I think they could win the Division after the Cole injury. They have the best starting 5 in the AL East
Their pitching will be nasty if it stays healthy, but still remains to be seen if they’ll have enough offense.
They take flak because their owner is a scam artist and they have no fans, not anything to do with their signings or development.
It costs 2 Yandy Diaz-es to rebuild the roof
How did you come to these numbers, cause your equation does NOT add up!!
How many Juan Soto’s?
One Soto equals two and a half Trops.
Which player will have the better 3 year period, Yandy or Alonso?
Dom Smith, easily!
I’ll take that.
The first person to make a, “This is dandy for Yandy” comment is automatically subjected to a 3 day suspension & an undisclosed fine. (Present company excluded) Ahahahahahaha!
Start the clock on his trade
A further decline would not have led to a $12M option being declined.. It’s obvious to see why the Rays did it. Christian Walker just got 3/54 at 34 years old. Obviously Walker was better, but Goldy got 1/14 and was much worse and 37 years old.
Besides, Yandy was fine last year. He had a 72 wRC+ in March/April. From May 1 on, it was 133 wRC+. And he was remarkably consistent, May was actually his 2nd worst month, at a 121 wRC+. From June 1 on, it was 137 wRC+. It was 138 wRC+ in the 2nd half and no month dipped below that 121 in May.
Good signing by the Rays. Yandy must’ve been scared of the FA market for corner 1B, but the only reason he wasn’t going to beat $12M next year is bc the Rays were going to pick up that option no matter what, barring injury.
If the Rays ownership were smart they would call Oakland and make the deal Fisher refused to build a new stadium in Oakland, They could play all their home games in the Coliseum until the new park is built.
As a Rays fan, this just gives him more value as viewed by other teams – he will be traded at
ASB. Too much depth at 1B/DH coming from AAA as well as Aranda and BLowe
This makes him a more appealing trade piece for other teams.