Praying for Elias Diaz, his mother and his family

Elias Diaz is suffering through a nightmare that every major-league player from Venezuela fears.

The Pittsburgh Pirates backup catcher’s mother has been kidnapped in his native country. Details are sketchy other than the abduction took place in the town of San Francisco, about 430 miles from the capital of Caracas.

Current Tampa Bay Rays catcher Wilson Ramos, then with the Washington Nationals, was abducted in Venezuela in 2011. A few days later, he was rescued in an air operation and three men were arrested in connection with the kidnapping.

I talked with Chicago White Sox right fielder Avasail Garcia about the unrest in his homeland last June while working on a feature story on him for USA TODAY Sports Weekly. He painted a depressing picture.

Dozens who had protested the authoritarian government of President Nicolas Maduro have been killed in the streets last spring. With oil prices plunging, Maduro had been squeezing imports of food and medicine, so he could make debt payments.

“People in Venezuela are dying because they don’t have medicine, they don’t have enough to eat,” Garcia said. “It’s a very sad situation. I think about it all the time. It’s just terrible what is being done to our people.”

By all account, things have gotten worse in the ensuing eight months.

Venezuela has long been a dangerous place for major-league players. Many natives return home infrequently and are accompanied by bodyguards when they visit.

“People will do anything when they are desperate,” Garcia said. “And there are a lot of desperate people in Venezuela right now.”

Superstar players such as Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera hire 24-hour security for their immediate and extended family.

Unfortunately, Diaz has not reached the point where he can afford to provide security guards for his family. The 27-year-old is not yet eligible for salary arbitration, having logged less than two full seasons of service time in the major leagues.

Diaz is a wonderful guy, always smiling and in a good mood. It is hard to fathom what he must feeling right now.

I have never met Diaz’s family. However, an incident I witnessed last summer prior to a game at PNC Park, assures me that he was raised the right way.

When players are called up from the minor leagues, the Pirates lodge them at the Spring Hill Suites, located just across General Robinson street from the ballpark, until they secure more permanent housing.

Most players who stay in the hotel use the media entrance to gain access to the park because it is closer to the clubhouse than the entrance adjacent to the players’ parking lot under the right-field stands.

A security guard who doesn’t usually work at the media entrance would not allow Diaz to get through the door because he did not have a press pass. Though two reporters vouched that Diaz was a player, the guard did not relent.

A lot of players would have thrown a fit. Instead, Diaz walked away without saying a word and halfway around the ballpark to the player entrance.

“He was just doing his job,” Diaz said when I asked him about it later that night.

One Pirates’ person said it best Thursday night, “he’s such a great kid and it’s a helpless feeling to know there’s nothing we can do for him but pray.”

Indeed, praying is all anyone can do until the situation is hopefully resolved with the safe return of Diaz’s mother.