Yandy Díaz's Thousand

The Third Try

In 2013, at 21, Yandy Díaz hid in tall grass near a Cuban beach, then boarded a motorized raft at 2 a.m. with his childhood friend Leandro Linares. Twelve hours across open water to Monte Cristi, in the Dominican Republic, sharks near the hull. He had tried twice before. Each attempt cost him 21 days in a Cuban jail. The third one took.

He signed with Cleveland that September for $300,000. As he reflected years later to FanGraphs, he never expected to reach the majors, let alone a milestone, because of the different style of play from Cuba. He had begun his professional career as a teenager with Naranjas de Villa Clara in the Cuban National Series. His mother, Elsa María Fernández, still living in Cuba, had steered him toward baseball when he preferred soccer and basketball.

A Thousand

On May 7, 2026, in his eighth season with Tampa Bay, Díaz collected his 1,000th career hit. The total stands at 1,098, across 1,022 games and ten major-league seasons. A .292 career average, a .371 on-base percentage. He thanked God, he said, for lasting so long as a contact hitter.

Three years before the milestone, Díaz made the 2023 All-Star Game under circumstances that strained belief. His wife Mayisleidis was due with their first child. He flew into Seattle the morning of the event, homered in his first at-bat — the first Cuban-born player to do so in an All-Star Game since 1972 — and flew straight back. Their son was born the next day. He won the Silver Slugger that year.

Still Here

Cleveland had him for two seasons. Tampa Bay has had him for eight. He is 35, a designated hitter, and in 2026 he made his second All-Star team with 141 hits through 118 games.

Reporting: cleveland.com, MLB.com, FanGraphs, Wikipedia. Career and biographical data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.