Yandy Diaz feels like it’s 2023 again. That’s a good thing for Rays.

Yandy Diaz runs home in the fifth inning after his second homer of the night against the Tigers on June 20.

TAMPA — In hitting baseballs all over the field with fury and ferocity during the last several weeks, Yandy Diaz has launched several numbers into the diamond discourse.

With a single in his last at-bat Monday, Diaz hit .400 for June, just the third Ray to reach that sacred number over a calendar month (minimum 75 at-bats) in any of their 28 seasons, joining Hall of Famer Fred McGriff (July 1999) and TV pre-/post-game host Matt Joyce (May 2011).

“I feel that everything is like 2023,” says Yandy Diaz. “My physical ability, everything, is going the same way it went in 2023."

Diaz led the majors with 150 hard-hit balls (95 mph and up) through June, ranking ahead of big-name stars such as Bo Bichette, Shohei Ohtani, Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Juan Soto.

Diaz went into play Tuesday with a 24-game on-base streak, and until an 0-for game last week had rapped hits in 15 consecutive matchups as well as multiple hits in six straight.

The Rays' Yandy Diaz led Major League Baseball with 150 hard-hit balls (95 mph and up) through June.

But there was another number, one that Diaz first mentioned in Kansas City last week and again Monday, that might be most significant of all to the Rays:

2023.

As in the year that was Diaz’s best of his first eight seasons in the majors.

That’s the year he hit .330 and won the American League batting title, the first ever by a Ray. And posted career highs in homers (22), doubles (35), RBIs (78), OPS (.932). And also made the AL All-Star team, won a Silver Slugger award and had a franchise-best-matching sixth-place finish in AL MVP voting.

“I feel that everything is like 2023,” said Diaz Monday via team interpreter Eddie Rodriguez. “My physical ability, everything, is going the same way it went in 2023.”

Diaz being at the top of his game is a big factor in the Rays trying to get back toward the top of the standings. And his improved production after a frustrating first few weeks is not coincidental with the team’s improved performance.

On teammate Yandy Diaz: “Yandy hits the ball about as hard as anybody in the game. So you know that that was going to pan out for him," Brandon Lowe says.

After play on April 22 in Arizona, the Rays were 9-14 (.391) and Diaz was hitting .213 with a .608 OPS. Since then (through Monday), the Rays went 38-24 (.613), and he hit .323 with an .898 OPS, getting him to .291 and .813 overall.

Shades of 2023?

“He looks like it how he’s hitting the ball,” manager Kevin Cash said. “He’s so balanced with his swings. Even when Yandy is off, the way he times himself up and stays consistent with his swing, it’s tough to tell. But now he’s getting a good result. He’s such a big part of our lineup and so happy for the success he’s had here lately.”

The Rays viewed Diaz’s slow start as essentially bad baseball luck, that he was doing everything right but getting the wrong outcomes.

“Yandy hits the ball about as hard as anybody in the game. So you know that that was going to pan out for him and for myself,” said second baseman Brandon Lowe, who similarly started slow and heated up.

Cash said it was just a matter of time for Diaz, who has spent more time at DH this season (69 starts) than first base (eight).

“He’s been hitting the ball hard all season long, now he’s starting to get the results to show for it,” Cash said. “But it was more frustration (early on). Like in four at-bats, two of them he hit (the ball) 110 miles an hour, and they’re right at people. Now he’s decided to hit it more in the gap.”

Obviously, it’s not quite that easy.

But Diaz, who turns 34 in August, said he knew through the early weeks that he was tracking for better.

“I’m aware that I started very slow,” he said. “But as the season progressed, I’d start seeing better results. So I wasn’t worried about it.”

Nor were his teammates who continue to be amazed at his performance.

“He’s a guy that just, I don’t know, it almost seems like not human, the way that he seems to just never struggle,” infielder Taylor Walls said. “I know that he does. He has his own internal battles, the same way we all do. But the ability for him to go out and put together consistent at-bats day in and day out. Even when he gets beat, he gets beat the right way.

“To me looking at it, it seems nearly impossible. I don’t know how he does it. He’s for sure the best hitter that I’ve personally seen throughout my baseball career. ... How he goes about his work, the at-bats he gives you in the game, the ability to come through in key moments and get the big hit when we need him to.”

But his mates also are not surprised at his success.

“He’s just doing what we know him to do,” outfielder Josh Lowe said. “Hitting the ball hard, getting on base, being a productive at-bat. And when he’s going like that, setting the tone for our offense. It’s pretty special.”

Or, as starter Zack Littell said: “It’s one of those where it’s like you just kind of expect it to happen. Especially after ’23 where he was just on that stretch.”

When the Rays somewhat unexpectedly made a deal in spring training to pick up Diaz’s 2026 option and add another for 2027, there was a lot of talk about mutual admiration. (He gets a $12 million option in 2026, and for 2027 the option vests for $13 million if he makes 500 plate appearances in 2026, or becomes a team option for $10 million if he doesn’t.)

Baseball operations president Erik Neander said Monday the respect for what Diaz can do with the bat — hitting the ball often, hard and on a line — is immense.

“He’s just an incredibly gifted hitter that’s able to keep it simple and just continue to produce in that exact way,” Neander said. “He doesn’t get fooled often when he swings, hits the ball on the screws often and hits the ball over 100 (mph) often. And he’s just really, really good at what he does. ...

“Yandy is an offensive force. He has done it in our uniform for a long time now. He started in a way (this season) that wasn’t his usual, but obviously has found it, and has gotten his numbers to a place where it seems like they’ve been far more often than not. If June is a sign of things to come, we’ll happily take it.”

Diaz is excited to see where he, and the Rays, end up.

“When everything is clicking, it’s like the floodgates open. So that’s how I feel,” he said.

“When you are right, you see the ball like a softball. So that’s why I go back and continue to say that I feel like the ’23 form. Because everything is like how I expected, and I’m seeing the results.”

• • •

Sign up for our Sports Today newsletter to get daily updates on the Bucs, Rays, Lightning and college football across Florida.

Every weekday, tune into our Sports Day Tampa Bay podcast to hear reporter Rick Stroud break down the biggest stories in Tampa Bay sports.

©2025 Tampa Bay Times. Visit tampabay.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.