Former A's Infielder Jordan Díaz Signs with NPB's Orix Buffaloes

Aug 30, 2023; Seattle, Washington, USA; Oakland Athletics third baseman Jordan Diaz (13) before a game against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images | Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images

A question that has been circulating throughout the offseason has finally received some clarity. Former A's infielder Jordan Díaz has indeed signed with the Orix Buffaloes in Japan's NPB, as has been confirmed by MLB.com's Martín Gallegos. Google has been saying he'd signed with the Buffaloes for weeks, but there had been no adjustments to his MLB player pages that even said he'd declared free agency.

After the 2024 campaign, he became a minor-league free agent and is now set to play overseas.

Díaz, still just 24, made his MLB debut in 2022, getting into 15 games down the stretch of the campaign. He then received a longer look in the big leagues the following year, playing in 90 games, but finished with a -1.1 bWAR thanks to a 78 OPS+ and poor defense. He racked up -13 Outs Above Average in just 638 innings in the field.

That said, Díaz has plenty of talent with the bat, as he has shown repeatedly in the minor leagues. The tricky part of his situation is that his bat carried him to the big leagues fairly quickly, but he hadn't solidified himself defensively at any position, so when he reached the big leagues he just wasn't able to lock down a spot with the glove to buy his bat a little more time to warm up. The A's didn't want to have a 21-year-old DH, so they urged him to learn a position.

In his time with Oakland, Díaz hit a combined .227 with a .276 OBP and ten home runs (all in 2023) across 344 plate appearances.

During Spring Training last year, he was included in one of the earlier rounds of cuts, which signaled that his time with the A's wasn't likely to last for much longer. He spent the entirety of the '24 campaign in the minors, getting into 102 games, and batting .301 with a .362 on-base and a career-high 22 home runs in 395 at-bats. His previous high of 19 in '22 was accumulated over 491 ABs.

If he can continue to produce similar numbers in NPB, then he's young enough that he can still have a fairly regular big-league career.

Orix has a long line of huge talents that have made it to Major League Baseball, including Hideo Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki, Masataka Yoshida, and most recently Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Former A's outfielder and a teammate of Díaz, Cody Thomas, was a member of the Buffaloes during the 2024 campaign. Former Chicago Cubs right-hander Anderson Espinoza was also a member of the club last year, and has reportedly re-signed with Orix for the upcoming season.

Pre-season games will begin on February 22 and run through March 23, with the regular season starting on March 28. The Nippon Series will be held from October 25 through November 2 with two scheduled off-days for travel, just like in the World Series.