Reds rookie relievers Alexis Diaz, Daniel Duarte grateful for chance in MLB

GOODYEAR, Ariz. – Alexis Diaz kept sitting in the Cincinnati Reds’ clubhouse day after day in spring training, wondering if this would finally be the day he’d learn he made the Opening Day roster.

His locker mate, reliever Daniel Duarte, and Dauri Moreta, another young reliever, learned they made the team with about a week left in camp.

Diaz was still in big-league camp as the Reds cut players and whittled down their roster, but he was the last one to know his fate. He kept wondering to himself, “When am I going to be told? What’s going to happen next?”

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Finally, on the penultimate day of camp, Diaz was summoned to manager David Bell’s office by bench coach Freddie Benavides.

“That’s when I knew,” Diaz said through team interpreter Jorge Merlos. “I was like, ‘all right, I’m in the big leagues now.’”

Diaz and Duarte join Hunter Greene as the three rookies on the Reds’ Opening Day roster who have yet to make their Major League debuts. They were all added to the 40-man roster last November to protect them from the now-canceled Rule 5 Draft.

After the 25-year-old Diaz was told he made the team, he couldn’t stop smiling in the clubhouse. He called his family. He hadn’t pitched above Double-A in his career, but he was thought he could make the team after building confidence in the Puerto Rican Winter League.

“I definitely felt I had a chance to make it on this club,” said Diaz, a 12th-round pick in the 2015 MLB Draft. “I worked really hard this offseason to make this a possibility. Now that I’m here, obviously, I took advantage.”

Diaz is the younger brother of New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz. They’re believed to be the first set of Puerto Rican brothers to pitch in the Majors. The two brothers trained together in the offseason, hiring a personal trainer and a pitching coach, which helped Alexis improve his mechanics and gain velocity.

Pitching at Double-A Chattanooga last year, Diaz had a 3.83 ERA in 35 relief appearances with 70 strikeouts in 42 1/3 innings.

“To have the two males of the family be in the greatest league of baseball there is, they can’t be happier for me,” Diaz said of his family’s reaction. “It’s just a sense of an accomplishment, especially through all the things I went through in the minor leagues and with my injuries that have gone in the past couple of years. They just feel so happy.”

Path to Major League Baseball takes winding road for Daniel Duarte

Duarte, a 25-year-old righty, wasn’t pitching for any team at this time last year. The Reds released him on June 1, 2020, when the pandemic canceled the minor-league season, so he started last season in the Mexican League.

“In my mind," Duarte said, "I was like, ‘OK, I have a chance. I’m still young.’ I need to work hard and learn those little things that help me to be a better pitcher and be a better player.”

Duarte, pitching for Acereros de Monclova, credits teammate Bartolo Colon for giving him a lot of advice. Some of it was about pitching. Some of it was just ways to think. It worked as Duarte allowed one run in 14 innings while striking out 17.

The Reds signed Duarte on June 24, but he spent July pitching in the Tokyo Olympics for Mexico. When he returned, he reached Triple-A Louisville by the end of the season.

“I’m so happy,” Duarte said. “It’s been my dream since I was a kid. Thank God, it came true.”

Injuries were an issue for Duarte throughout his minor-league career. He missed the entire 2014 season and most of 2015 after signing with the Texas Rangers as an international free agent. The Kansas City Royals picked him in the minor-league phase of the 2017 Rule 5 Draft, but he was injured for most of the 2019 season.

The Reds signed him ahead of the 2020 season, but COVID-19 wiped out his opportunity to pitch for him until they re-signed him in 2021.

When he learned he made the team after a meeting in Bell’s office, his first phone calls went to his wife and his parents.

“My wife just started crying because she’s been with me at tough times,” Duarte said. “I got two surgeries and she’s been there with me. She was like, ‘oh my god,’ couldn’t believe it. She was so happy. My dad as well. He was like ‘hey, that was my dream’ because he played baseball as well and hurt his shoulder, so he couldn’t play anymore. He was like, ‘that was my dream, but thank God you made my dream come true and I’m so happy for you.’”