Five Things to Know About Rockies Catcher and Surprise All-Star MVP Elías Díaz

And for many people, it was their first time hearing Díaz’s name.

For Rockies fans, No. 35 has served as a clutch and welcome addition to manager Bud Black’s squad since he came to Colorado in 2020. While 2022 was somewhat of a down year, Díaz had already managed to steal everyone’s hearts the year before — during a season that saw him hit .246, with a .310 on-base percentage and .464 slugging percentage — and land a three-year, $14.5 million extension.

Díaz has since returned to form for the Rockies, and is currently collecting some of the best stats for a catcher that the MLB has seen all year. During the All-Star game, he brought in a go-ahead runner and sealed a win for the National League with a two-run homer in the top of the eighth inning, which led to his MVP win.

Although he put himself on the MLB map with a single swing, there’s still a lot out there that fans don’t know about the native Venezuelan, how he got to the Centennial State — and what’s been happening to him over the years.

Here are five things that people should know about the baseball journeyman:

Elias Díaz has a brother who was a catcher for the Red Sox

Díaz’s older brother, Emison Soto, played four seasons with the Boston Red Sox franchise in the minors and for various other independent and international teams. The Rockies catcher credits his brother with helping to push his sports career forward and working to make him a professional ballplayer.

“I was his fan No. 1,” Díaz told MLB.com ahead of the 2023 All-Star Game. “He said, ‘Do you want to be a professional? Okay, let’s do it.’ And every day, we went to the ballpark and tried to get better. He was a hard coach, so hard. I cried, everything. Sometimes, I’d say, ‘I don’t want to go today.’ And he’d say, ‘Oh, no. You have to go. You have to be tough.’”

Solo, who played his last baseball season in 2003, is now living in Atlanta, training youths in the sport that he and his brother both love — and play similarly. 

“A lot of people tell me that we act the same on the field,” Díaz said.

Diaz’s mother was kidnapped in 2018, and is a huge part of his life

Díaz’s mother, Ana Isabel Soto, has been a focal point through his entire career. She was at the All-Star Game, and the Rockies favorite was asked about her during his post-game interview.

“It was incredibly special for me to have her here,” Díaz said. “A lot of emotions with everything that we’ve been through, all the sacrifices that she made for me.”

In February 2018, Soto was kidnapped while standing outside her house in Venezuela by a group of men that was reportedly made up of dirty cops and at least one family friend. Celebrity-related abductions are relatively common in the South American country; BBC News reported that former Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos was kidnapped in 2011 while visiting family in the city of Valencia. He was freed from a hideout in the mountains by security forces a few days later.

In the case of Díaz’s mom, a ransom was requested but not paid, and she was rescued three days after she was snatched.

While Venezuela can be a tough place for celebrities and their relatives, Díaz wants to improve things there and see the country reach its full potential.

“I try to help almost everybody, especially the little kids,” Díaz told MLB.com in July 2023. “We provide food, we provide shoes, things for schools, all that stuff. We started with ten kids, but now we cover a lot. I want to help people that don’t have money, that don’t have opportunities. And it’s from my heart.

“Venezuela is my country, and I feel it’s the best, even with the situation we have,” he added. “Venezuelans are my people.”

Díaz has been a professional baseball player since he was teenager

The Maracaibo native broke into pro baseball in 2008 after being signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates at the age of seventeen. A year later, Díaz began playing for the VSL Pirates in the Venezuelan Summer League, and he went on to join multiple minor-league squads before getting called up to the majors.

“He’s a grinder and he’s played the game a long time and it took him a while to find his stride,” Rockies pitcher Daniel Bard told the Denver Post this week. “But it seems like he appreciates the game every day he’s at the ballpark. It’s been fun to watch him grow.”
 

“I try not to worry about things,” Diaz told the Post in May. “I just go day by day. I take care of today. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, so what matters is today.”

Díaz has never appeared in more than 106 games in his previous eight seasons

Despite having eight and a half years under his belt in MLB, Díaz has never played more than 106 games in a single season.

This year, he’s on pace to finally do it — with eighty games behind home plate already by the All-Star break.

“The thing about Elias is that he’s so capable and so willing,” Bud Black told the Post in May. “He’s strong as a bull and he wants to play every day. There is a strong desire to do it all — and do it playing a tough position.”

During the first half of the season, Díaz managed to record a .277 batting average and .328 on-base percentage to go with a .435 slugging percentage. He led the Rockies with 21 multi-hit and thirteen multi-RBI games.

Díaz has the second-most games behind the plate out of all MLB catchers this season

Since the season began, Díaz has played 74 games behind home plate as a catcher. That’s second out of all other players at the position in the MLB.

He’s also tied for third in hits, with 77, and tied for second in runners caught stealing this year, with fourteen.

“In spring training we talked a lot about, ‘Don’t try to do too much, don’t overthrow, just be accurate,'” Díaz told the Post in May. “What I’ve been doing. I mean, I don’t try to throw it 100 mph to second base.”

As for Díaz’s hitting, the man has been on a tear this season, with the third-best batting average in the league at the catcher position, with .277 and nine home runs — which is how many he hit all last season.

“I definitely feel like I’m in a good place,” concluded the All-Star MVP.