N.Y. Police Officer Drafted in New Women's Pro Baseball League

Syracuse Police Officer Nadia Diaz, who comes from a baseball family, was a sixth-round draft pick for Boston's team in the newly created Women's Professional Baseball League.

By Nate Mink

Source syracuse.com

Nov. 21, 2025

3 min read

What to know

• Syracuse Police Officer Nadia Diaz was drafted in the sixth round of the new Women’s Professional Baseball League and will compete for a roster spot with the Boston team.

• Diaz, a high school standout who later joined the police force, has a deep baseball background and family ties to professional players.

• The new league, the first pro women’s baseball league since the 1950s, will begin play in August with four teams.

Syracuse, NY, Police Officer Nadia Diaz was drafted by Boston in the sixth round Thursday for the new Women’s Professional Baseball League.

SYRACUSE, NY — A Syracuse city cop has been selected in the first draft for a new women’s professional baseball league.

Nadia Diaz, who played Little League and high school baseball locally before joining the Syracuse Police Department, was taken in the sixth round of the Women’s Professional Baseball League draft Thursday night.

The WPBL is the first pro women’s baseball league since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1940s and ’50s and is set to begin play next August in Springfield, Illinois.

The draft was streamed on the league’s TikTok, Instagram and YouTube feeds.

There are four teams in the newly formed league: Boston, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Each team took 30 players, but only 15 players will make the roster.

Since Diaz was Boston’s 27th pick, she will likely be fighting for a roster spot at third base. The team drafted another third baseman with its fourth pick.

Diaz once struck out 19 batters in a six-inning game when she was 11 years old and pitching in the Southside American Little League in 2012. (She picked up an extra strikeout after her catcher failed to catch a third strike, allowing a batter to reach first base without a throw.)

Diaz was topping 60 mph with her fastball by the time she finished sixth grade at Roberts School in Syracuse.

She played basketball at Onondaga Community College and graduated in 2020, two years after graduating from the Syracuse Institute of Technology. She also played baseball for the Syracuse City high school varsity baseball team.

At OCC, she took a criminal justice class taught by a professor who was a former sheriff’s deputy, which helped inspire her to pursue a career in law enforcement. She was sworn in as a Syracuse police officer in 2023. Diaz also helped the Lazers baseball program as a volunteer assistant coach earlier that year.

Diaz’s uncle is former Major League catcher Benito Santiago. A second cousin, Nelson Figueroa, pitched with the New York Mets. Nadia’s father, Jose, played Class AA baseball as a catcher in Puerto Rico.

Naturally, Diaz grew up a Red Sox fan in a town filled with Yankee zealots.

One of her favorite Red Sox players was David Ortiz, affectionately known as “Big Papi.”

Diaz’s older sister gave her the nickname “Big Mama” when she was younger.

Now, “Big Mama” will rep the same city Ortiz once enchanted.

__________________

Visit syracuse.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.