The New York Mets elected to move on from closer Edwin Diaz, and it's turning out to be a good thing they did.
The New York Mets made plenty of moves last offseason that backfired, but an important one that didn’t involved moving on from former closer Edwin Diaz. Diaz opted out of his contract at the end of the season, and he tried to get a contract for what he called “Diaz money,” which was $25 million a year for four years.
Thank goodness the Mets didn’t do this. Diaz got a deal that was almost as lucrative from the Los Angeles Dodgers, but at the moment he’s on the verge of being left off LA’s playoff roster as he continues to struggle in his rehab assignment with Oklahoma City after missing almost three months after arthroscopic sugery to remove loose bodies in his right elbow, according to a report from Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.
“We have to go with our best pitchers, as far as performance, talent, all that stuff,” Roberts said. “So my bet is that he will be (on the roster). But again, there’s got to be some kind of evidence or something for us, again, to sort of bet on. And so my bet is yes, but we still got to see something.”
The Dodgers gave the Mets a three-year deal for $69 million, and they’re now staring down the barrel of a second straigth season with their closer struggling badly. Díaz’s 16 appearances with the Dodgers yielded a disastrous 11.85 ERA, and the Dodgers believe the closer’s issues are mechanical, given that his arm angle is the lowest in his career.
“He needs to pitch better,” Roberts said. “I think the world of him. The baseball card looks great. But it’s like, where we’re at, there’s got to be something for us to be able to hang our hat on. And he knows that. He knows that. He wants to pitch well.”
The Mets may have moved on from Diaz, but they haven’t solved their closer problem yet. Devin Williams has been far better than Diaz, but he’s still been problematic, and he has two years left on his three-year, $51 million deal the Mets gave him. His ERA has been up over four for most of the year, so he’s not a viable closer, and neither is fill-in Kodai Senga, who’s been closing games for Williams after the latter experienced shoulder issues.
It’s yet another tough problem for the Mets, and there’s no easy solution. They’re getting good work from the patchwork bullpen after all the moves they made at the deadline, but fixing their closer problem will be another important item on their offseason to-do list.
