The Mets are off to a slow start at 3-4, and high-profile reliever Edwin Diaz hasn’t helped matters. Diaz, whom the Mets hoped would rebound this year after a subpar first season with the team in 2019, has allowed an earned run in two of three appearances this year. He struggled Thursday in a loss to the Red Sox, allowing four of five hitters to reach base. Afterward, manager Luis Rojas told Anthony DiComo of MLB.com and other reporters that Mets bigwigs will discuss whether to use Diaz in high-leverage situations going forward. Considering Diaz has only thrown 2 1/3 innings this season, it’s far too soon to say he won’t bounce back. Nevertheless, it’s stunning to see how far he has fallen off since a tremendous run with the Mariners from 2016-18. The Mets’ decision to trade for Diaz and second baseman Robinson Cano continues to look worse and worse.
- Infielder Jed Lowrie joined the Mets in the same offseason as Diaz and Cano, but he has barely played for the club. Now in the second season of a two-year, $20MM contract, various injuries have limited Lowrie to nine games and eight plate appearances as a Met. He hasn’t played yet this season, and the reason became somewhat more clear Thursday. It turns out that Lowrie is dealing with PCL laxity in his left knee, according to general manager Brodie Van Wagenen. It’s still unknown if Lowrie will play for the Mets this season, however.
- Red Sox left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez has been out this season because of coronavirus complications, but chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom told Greg Hill of WEEI on Thursday (h/t: Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com) that they believe he will pitch this year. “We do expect to get him back,” Bloom said. “I couldn’t tell you exactly when. Obviously, we’re fortunate in that the complication that he had was very mild in terms of the severity of it.” Rodriguez went on the injured list July 7 after testing positive for the virus and has been dealing with a heart issue related to the illness lately. If healthy, he’ll unquestionably be the No. 1 starter in a Boston staff that’s rife with problems.
- The Tigers are placing oufielder Cameron Maybin on the injured list because of a strained quad, Evan Woodbery of MLive.com relays. Maybin suffered the injury Thursday, just the sixth game since the once-touted Tigers prospect returned to Detroit for a third stint. The club signed Maybin to a one-year, $1.5MM deal in free agency.
Lowrie is done. I had a full tear of my PCL in high school playing hockey. It was not fun. You can function with looseness or tears, but it is painful and causes the muscles to around it to have to work harder. It was hard for me playing HS hockey, I can’t imagine playing professionally with that kind of issue. They will try rehab most likely to build up the surrounding muscles, but you can’t really do much about it other than surgery.
Lowrie cost the Mets $2,500,000 per plate appearance.
Here’s hoping Eduardo Rodriguez is able to make it back. Myocarditis is no joke. This year sucks.
You’ve got Lugo, plug him in.
Brodie Van Wagenen’s track record so far is shockingly bad for someone who has only been on the job since last year.
J.d. davis?…wilson ramos? Porcello and wacha?
Actually theres only been one significantly bad decision by BVW. Granted, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Otherwise he’s done really well adding talent and value.
Stop with the bad track record! The guy has done actually pretty well. And then Diaz trade nobody could have seen it play out this way. Diaz was arguably the best reliever in the game and cheap and controllable. And he dumped numerous salary and roster positions on that trade too. Stop with the bad track record stuff.
Lmao can’t believe Brodie still has so many fanboys, is it cuz he’s handsome? Trying to defend trading Kelenic and Dunn for a RP and old/expensive 2B cuz there was some salary relief involved is laughable, pretty sure the M’s flipped Bruce for more prospects anyways. Not to mention that awful Stroman trade where Kay is always in the majors for the Blue Jays and Simeon-Richardson should be shortly since he’s a beast. Oh yea, and giving Jed Lowrie $20M to play 2B and essentially turning McNeil into a bench/depth piece was Brodie’s original plan, even though everyone could tell the McNeil hype was real with his professional approach at the plate.
TLDR: Brodie is a trash GM with a nice smile
Trading for the “best” rp costs prospects. Those two you named have yet to do anything in a major league uniform so don’t go too nuts on them yet. At the time, alonso was an unknown and Smith was fat and bad. Brodie took cano (potential first option), signed lowrie (potential first second and third option) had mcneil, Frazier, as options did an amazing job in finding davis, and for once on a mets roster created extensive depth in the infield. Cano has an crazy salary on him. Yes. I get that. But look at the bigger picture rather than the small parts you feel like seeing. As for stroman trade, that was actually a smart move. He is a very solid pitcher and gave them the chance to have another year of solid 1-4 pitchers (prior to noah going down) expecting to lose wheeler. They were a few games out of playoffs last year which if Diaz didn’t stink could have made a huge difference and then you would have had an amazing staff pitching in the playoffs (we saw how that helped in 2015). Those prospects the Mets traded for him aren’t much that will or would have helped the club more than what they currently have. Plus I believe the Mets will try to keep stroman and worse case they get a draft pick for him when he signs elsewhere. The downfall of Brodie has been the Diaz not living up to expectations at all, lowrie getting hurt, and not much else that’s more glaring than any other gm in the league. Without that salary dump you mentioned, the Mets would have had no useable depth on their roster last year too. Keep that in mind. And, if Diaz was a stud still, the salary of a good closer on the market would have been comparable to Diaz’s current contract plus some of cano contract. So please again, look at the bigger picture and not what you want to see and be negative about.
Plenty of people hated the Diaz trade at the time. I know I did. I’d grade Brodie a C minus. I don’t see how Ramos is a huge plus and Porcello and Wacha are incompletes. Davis trade was his one big hit. But trading a player of Kelenic’s potential for a reliever is just nuts to me. If that’s what a reliever costs in a trade then get him a different way.
Didnt need diaz when he brought back familia ,with lugo and gsellman as the main guys backing him.ramos isnt a huge plus over d’arnaud , plawecki, and nido?
I actually like dArnaud much better than Ramos. I don’t see BVW signing Ramos as some big victory.
what do we expect when u try to make a G.M. out of a player agent!! Chaim Bloom wouldve been a much better choice at the time……BVW is best buddies with Jeffy Wilpon…..nuff said
Which part of the trade was worse cano or Diaz
Cano for sure. At least the stuff for Diaz is mostly still there and there’s potential for a rebound. Cano is just old and slow.
Kelenic
Call me crazy, but is there any way Diaz gets traded? Maybe a Ken Giles – Roberto Osuna esque trade? Diaz to LA for Treinen and co.?
Watching the Mets tonight made me wonder, if Diaz fixed his arm slot issue, would he be good again? Nevertheless, I seriously think a Diaz for Treinen and co. would work, (when I say co, a half-decent prospect).
Tell me what y’all think.
No way diaz is done
No chance LA trades Treinen for Diaz. They sure as hell will not throw in an extra prospect too. LA is in Win Now mode and have been for years. They will not trade a good pitcher for a bad one. That is something bad teams do: trade a guy who is good with short control for someone who is bad but has tremendous talent if you are willing to wait and hope you can fix him. Diaz will cost LA games. They do not want him.
No one would touch Diaz right now. His return would be minimal.
I reason to trade Treinen when he is pitching well and Diaz is not.
Two things you have to remember with that trade : 1- Toronto wasn’t contending and LA certainly is.
2 – Toronto was trying to get rid of Osuna because of his domestic abuse issues.
also at the time Osuna was pitching well, Giles wasn’t.
* no reason to trade
I just didn’t get why people automatically assumed Diaz would be good again this year. All the experts had Diaz having a huge year. He was horrendous last year. Why would that magically change? Anyway, I hate seeing talented players fall apart. I hope he bounces back. Mets were a swing away from winning their last two games, so I wouldn’t worry too much yet.
The talent and stuff is still there. Plus to go along with his excellent numbers from 2016-2018 he had a .205 xBA and .308 xWOBA in 2019. I can see why many thought he would be having a better year than he has so far.
Talent and stuff…I mean he gives up meatballs and walks. Even in his 1 save he put a runner on. The guy cannot close.
peripherals
because entering this year 2019 was more of a statistical outlier
It may have been statistically an outlier, but anyone who watched him pitch last year knows the results were no fluke. We shouldn’t be expecting a huge turnaround from Diaz. His couple great seasons may end up being the outliers when all is said and done.
Maybe, maybe not, but it would have been stupid to give up on a relief pitcher who was entering his age 26 season, had a 2.64 ERA, 2.56 FIP and 30.6 K/BB%. Plus looking at his 2019 he was getting a bit unlucky with a .377 BABIP, which from 2016-2018 was just .291 and had an xBA of .205, xwOBA of .282, and xERA of 3.27.
Well, I certainly wouldn’t give up on him so soon, but I’m not expecting much. If he can improve to the level of decent 7th inning guy I’d be thrilled.
Hopefully Diaz hasn’t been pitching hurt and being quiet about it. That could be the problem also. He is way to good to pitch this poorly. The Mets got to figure it out. There is still time to see what’s wrong. Dumb to trade him right now. Your not getting back anything significant.
For those who didn’t watch the game last night: John Smoltz was all over Diaz’s release point on his slider. Smoltz seemed to know exactly what was wrong with his mechanics.
He looked pretty vintage against Devers with two nice sliders just inside under the hands and then 99 up and away… but looked terrible the rest of his outing.
Diaz is getting hit because his fastball is straight as an arrow. Big league hitters can time an iron mike!
rule-5-draft-Dodger- Mariano got away with it for awhile before developing his signature cutter. Not too late for Diaz. He is still young. He can learn another pitch. Mets would be wise to just keep him for now.
1 Seattle is a football town until Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll leave, 2 they have no media frenzy 3 ny has millions of fans ..put it all together and you get a guy who hasnt pitched in pressure before coming here..now dump him for whatever you can get and work on dumping Cano next.. dumbest trade in team history,why get cano when they have rosario ,guillorme,mcneil,j.d davis,gimenez and if they were worried about veteran leadership in the infield they could have resigned todd frazier for a lot cheaper
That’s some scary stuff with Eduardo Rodriguez. I hope Boston gives him all the time he needs. The man’s long-term life-quality has to be top priority—especially in what will almost undoubtedly be a throwaway season for the Red Sox.
Best wishes in his recovery and the Red Sox as a whole. Baseball is more fun when Boston is competitive.
Is there a point to even have ERod pitch this season? Not only is he dealing with serious heart conditions, but the Sox aren’t very good. I’d rather he sit the season out and stay far away from baseball in order to come back healthy next season
@bodam- Yes, definitely scary. A disease that can affect your heart long-term is very frightening. Makes you wonder if COVID-19 ever truly leaves the body? If I’m Rodriguez I’m opting out of the season for sure. I really hope he recovers from this. Health has to come lst before anything.
if im any other team in the league id take a chance on Diaz and move him out of the 9th inning. it must be something with playing in New York at this point
The Mets should DFA Diaz and the Mariners should find a way to bring him back.
All these pitching coaches and computers and they still can’t figure out how to right Diaz. The guy throws 99 and has a wicked slider. If it’s not a talent issue, then it’s above the buttons and there are coaches for that, too.
Meanwhile, they need to turn to Wilson and Betances later in games and/or stop using Lugo in the 7th.
Sadly, the Mets have a recent history of failing to develop ANY of their top notch pitching talent outside of deGrom.
Betances velocity has dropped significantly. A bit worrisome.
From what’s being said about now the Cards and other squads and C-19, this season won’t be lasting much longer. I’ll bet that by mid-August the season will be suspended and 2020 baseball will be over. They are “pausing” the Marlins season and now that the Cards and other teams are starting to have cases pop up as well it won’t be long. How can it be fair to the Marlins even when they do start playing again? Their going to have a team made up of so-so prospects and other teams cast offs just to be able to field a squad. And playing against other teams that haven’t even been affected? I love having baseball back but I just don’t see how it can keep this up much longer.
Run this math problem by your kids: Jed Lowrie is being paid $20 million by the Mets. He has zero hits in a Mets uniform. How many dollars are the Mets paying him per hit?
Mets fans should look at the bright side. Since Lowrie has already tested free agency, Van Wagenen can not make him a qualifying offer.