The Dodgers Steal Edwin Diaz From The Mets

The Dodgers no longer have to rely on Scott being their closer after his shortcomings this past season. At best, Scott can be Diaz’s set-up man and look to bounce back in a lower-leverage role. Los Angeles had a gaping hole at the position; they instantly addressed it, and it quite literally couldn’t have been a better option. Outside of the newly acquired San Diego Padre Mason Miller.

A ton of people are going to call for a lockout in 2027 after this news, but at the end of the day, Los Angeles just puts their money with their mouth is. The Dodgers are never quiet; they’re always aggressive, and their owners are bar none in the MLB. Teams should take a page out of their book and consistently look to evolve instead of staying stagnant.

Diaz is 31 years old and over the last two seasons, is second in strikeout rate at 38.4%, second in strikeout to walk rate at 29.7%, and owns a third-best 2.22 Skill Interactive ERA.

The trust tree for the Dodgers’ bullpen was so little that they had to heavily rely on starting pitchers pitching out of the bullpen for them in the postseason, like Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, and, famously, Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

This is an extremely durable pitcher for the most part, one of the best strikeout pitchers in the league, in his early 30s, and he’s now on the best team in the world.

What Does This Mean For The Mets?

The trumpets are no longer a thing in New York; Diaz’s iconic walkout song “Narco” will no longer be performed by Timmy Trumpet in Citi Field. Those trumpets will now instead be heard in Los Angeles in Dodger Stadium.

Devin Williams, who the Mets recently signed, is now practically locked in as their closer, and they hope that he can return to his former All-Star self. At face value $51 million for 3 years of Williams sounded like closer money, but you never know with an owner like Steve Cohen. It sounded like there was a really good chance that this was their elite bullpen duo for the foreseeable future. Now Williams is on his own and trying to show that he can handle the closer role while pitching in a big-time market in New York, where fans are extremely passionate, to say the least.

New York now has no excuse not to re-sign Pete Alonso; the years are going to be interesting, though. They didn’t budge for 3 years and a higher average annual value for Diaz, but would they be willing to do so for Alonso? It would be a tough pill to swallow for the Mets and their fanbase to whiff on both of them after having an owner like Cohen, who is one of the richest people on the planet. These are beloved players by the fan base as well, and it would be super unfortunate for them to not even walk away with one of them.

Is this more of a move that small-town President of Baseball Operations David Stearns made and convinced Cohen? Stearns came over from the Milwaukee Brewers and they’re very analytical, make savvy moves, but he’s in the big apple now. Cost-effective moves are cool and all, but when you have an owner of Cohen’s status, you need to be able to make the most out of that luxurious opportunity.

At least Stears and Williams overlapped with the Brewers, so there is some familiarity there. They hope that he can get back to the player that he was with the Brewers, where he went from setting up Josh Hader in the 8th inning to becoming an elite closer for them down the line for multiple seasons after they traded him to the Houston Astros.

The End Of My Edwin Diaz Rant

I never thought the day would come when Diaz was no longer a Met, but here we are. From 2019 on, he starred with them after being traded from the Seattle Mariners and was a 2X All-Star and finished 9th in National League CY Young voting in 2022. In that season, he had a dazzling 1.31 ERA and otherwordly 50.2% strikeout rate in 62 innings.

Outside of early struggles and his unfortunate torn patellar tendon injury in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, he was everything New York could’ve asked for and then some.

New York now has to pivot to a potential setup man for Williams and attempt to build a really good duo with relievers like free agents, Robert Suarez or Pete Fairbanks.

Mets fans on social media are currently at a loss for words and genuinely stunned that Diaz is a Dodger, and are asking why they didn’t match that offer or go an additional year. Outside of maybe the Kyle Schwarber news, this sounded like someone who was undoubtedly going to return to his team.

Stearns now has some questions to answer about this whole process and why the Mets didn’t retain Diaz, especially looking at that price tag and how he’ll address the rest of the bullpen.