BOSTON — Wade Boggs still has, and may always have, the biggest personal milestone hit by a player in a Rays uniform, capping his Cooperstown-worthy career with his 3,000th hit — a home run, at that – in an August 1999 game at Tropicana Field.

Fred McGriff, another Tampa-produced Hall of Famer, logged his 400th homer and 2,000th hit with the Rays. Jose Canseco also hit his 400th homer. Other round-number homers include Evan Longoria hitting Nos. 100, 200 and 250 with Tampa Bay; and Carlos Pena 100 and 200.

Numbers-wise, what Yandy Diaz did Thursday night, rapping his 1,000th career hit, may not seem that significant. According to baseball-reference.com, he became the 1,413th player in major-league history to join that club.

Others that did so wearing Rays jerseys include Carl Crawford, Ben Zobrist, James Loney, Pena and Longoria.

But in context, what Diaz accomplished Thursday was very significant, as he became just the 20th Cuban-born player to do so.

Among those he joined are Hall of Famers Tony Perez, Minnie Minoso and Tony Oliva. Rafael Palmeiro, atop the list with 3,020 hits, would be a fourth if not for issues with performance-enhancing drugs.

Typically, Diaz doesn’t like to talk much about his accomplishments, but Friday he acknowledged this one was different.

“It’s something that makes me feel a lot more special considering the names that are on that list,” he said via team interpreter Kevin Vera. “When you look at the 20 and I look at myself right now, I can consider myself as one of the best hitters to come out of Cuba. Just because everyone on that list is super talented.”

Especially given the circumstances.

Diaz, who was caught and jailed the first four times before escaping Cuba, was close to 26 when he made his big-league debut in April 2017 with Cleveland. He was traded to Tampa Bay in December 2018 and didn’t play 80 games in a season until 2021.

He also had to adjust to a different style of play than in Cuba and to navigate suggestions to change his swing to launch the ball more in attempts to show more power and hit more homers.

He laughed Friday when he was reminded of a spring training drill early in his Rays tenure when screens were placed on the infield to try to get him to hit the ball over them.

For the most part, Diaz has done it his way, making contact often, hitting the ball hard, using the whole field. Some years that led to more homers — 22 in 2023 when he hit an American League-best .330, a career-high 25 in 2025 (18 at cozy Steinbrenner Field) — but he said it’s not by design.

“I’m the same type of contact hitter like I’ve always been,” he said. “I’m a guy that looks for contact and line drives, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Diaz’s style is unique. When asked, Rays manager Kevin Cash said, “There’s some Manny Ramirez in there,” without the homers, noting the “consistency of the approach and the simpleness and knowing what a pitcher is trying to do, and then him being able to go up there and stay within himself and execute his game plan.”

Boggs, who was at Fenway Park on Friday, thought and suggested “maybe” a younger version of Miguel Cabrera in how Diaz uses the whole field: “(Diaz) is a dynamic player.”

Cuban hit club

Rafael Palmeiro, 3,020
*Tony Perez, 2,732
Bert Campaneris, 2,249
*Minnie Minoso, 2,113
Tony Taylor, 2,007
*Tony Oliva, 1,917
Jose Cardenal, 1,913
Jose Canseco, 1,877
Leo Cardenas, 1,725
Cookie Rojas, 1,660
Jose Abreu, 1,587
Yunel Escobar, 1,501
Tito Fuentes, 1,491
Tony Gonzalez, 1,485
Alexei Ramirez, 1,387
Kendrys Morales, 1,289
Zoilo Versalles, 1,246
Jose Iglesias, 1,212
Yuniesky Betancourt, 1,057
Yandy Diaz, 1,000

*Hall of Fame member