With the World Series in the rear-view and the offseason officially underway, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on today:
1. Edwin Diaz Sets Records With New Mets Pact
The first major signing of the offseason occurred yesterday evening, with the Mets re-signing star closer Edwin Diaz to a massive five-year, $102MM contract. Diaz now becomes the first relief pitcher to ever secure a nine-figure deal, and the first with a deal of an average annual value north of $20MM. Diaz secured that contract by having a platform season for the ages, throwing 62 innings to a 1.31 ERA and a mind-boggling 0.90 FIP. While the Mets have plenty more to do in rebuilding the bullpen as Trevor May, Seth Lugo, and Mychal Givens depart for free agency, the Diaz re-signing serves as an important first step in that process. The record-setting contract also serves as a reminder of owner Steve Cohen’s willingness to flex financial muscle, which will be important as the Mets look to re-sign or replace players such as Jacob deGrom, Chris Bassitt, and Brandon Nimmo this offseason.
2. World Series Teams Examine Injuries
Though the 2022 World Series is now a thing of the past, the participants must now turn their focus to the injuries they suffered throughout the season that had been ignored in favor of playing through the postseason run. Most notable among these, of course, is Bryce Harper, who suffered UCL damage in May, with surgery this offseason a possibility. For the World Series champion Astros, three players have injuries to worry about entering the offseason: Alex Bregman suffered a broken finger late in Game 6 on Saturday, Yuli Gurriel missed Game 6 after a sprain to his MCL, and Martin Maldonado played through both a broken hand and a sports hernia this postseason, the latter of which will require surgery according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. Bregman’s injury has the least question marks surrounding it, as he will reportedly be ready for Spring Training in 2023. More details could be announced regarding the rest of these injuries in the coming days.
3. Rule 5 Draft Protection Deadline Looms
As Mark Polishuk noted in his offseason preview, the deadline to add players to the 40-man roster in order to protect them from the Rule 5 draft is November 15th this year. Seeing as there was no R5 draft last offseason, teams will likely have more players to protect than usual, which could lead to roster crunches across baseball. This could also lead to some players getting cut from 40-man rosters a few days ahead of November 18th’s non-tender deadline, and some minor trades such as yesterday’s Sam Hilliard deal between the Rockies and Braves. Overall, with these dates being earlier on the offseason calendar, fans should expect a larger quantity of winter moves to happen in this first week of the offseason than in recent years, though said moves won’t necessarily be at the top of the free agent market.
Isn’t it somewhat of a rule of thumb that you shouldn’t ink relief pitchers to huge, multi-year deals?
They tend not to age well. The only recent deal that genuinely ended well was Kenley Jansen’s contract with LAD.
Diaz may be the best in the game. Fake rules go out the window in that case.
That Diaz contract is an abomination.
Not for the Mets. It’s the new norm.
No one is paying 20M for a reliever. They break
All positions have players that break
I think people drastically undervalue the importance of having someone who can come in in the 9th and close out the game. As a Red Sox fan we saw first hand that not everyone can handle the 9th inning. Some rise to the occasion and feed off the adrenaline, others crumble under the pressure.
On the contrary, people drastically overemphasize the importance of closers.
No relief pitcher is worth $20m/yr. How do we know you’re getting 2022 Diaz and not 2021? Or somewhere in between?
$20m/yr means he needs to be the best closer for the entire duration of the contract.
Said by a fan whose team paid out $16m apiece to 2 relief pitchers years ago – that with current inflation is about what Diaz just got.
Those 2 pitchers were far older at the time and broke down the last few years of their contracts.
Please identify the 2 relief pitchers. Thanks
@yankeespride, why does a closer making 20MM/yr have to be the best for the duration of the contract when it is a known fact that position players who get the big long term contracts won’t be so great toward the end of their deals? Do you think Judge will be as good at year 9 or 10 as he will in year 1 or 2 of his pending new deal? Of course not. To get Diaz for the next 2-3-4 years of dominant relief pitching, maybe the overpay and extra year (or two) was the only way to get it done. If I were a Mets’ fan, I’d be stoked about this deal!
Chapman is one. Unless he is talking about Rivera, not sure who the other would be.
Diaz crumbled under the pressure nearly as often as he didn’t in 2021. It meant many Mets fans wanted him gone last off season
People tend to have short memories though, and therefore are prone to making poor decisions
We’ll see how this works for them
I think people make too much of the ninth inning. I think the best reliever should come in to face the best hitters even if it is not the ninth. Worry about the ninth later. Many times, you have the bottom of the order in the ninth. I have often wondered why the best reliever doesn’t come in to face the best hitters in the eighth inning. The answer is because it is not the ninth inning. I think it’s stupid.
@BION
Correct, and thankfully managers finally seem to be starting to realize this.
The Mets do that with Diaz quite often though. He pitched the eighth quite a bit if i recall correctly.
@King Floch why is it an abomination? What closer could have the Mets signed to replace him? How much would the Dodgers have paid to fill a glaring need? The best reliever on the market last year was 32 year old Raisel Iglesias and he got 4 years 58M. Diaz is 4 years younger and coming off an incredible season. If the Dodgers had been given a shot no doubt they would have given the Mets a run for their money. Besides, without Diaz or a comparable replacement (which none are available), forget WAR, the Mets go from being a 100 win team to a 90 win team. Wish he was LA bound. Good move by the Mets to keep him out of LA, or worse, Philly, NYY
@WW
Closers are a dime a dozen. Jorge Lopez was an all star closer this year.
@BK
What is the saying? “A fool and his money are soon parted.” Sums up Cohen pretty well, I’d say.
Given he’s worth about $16B, I’d venture to guess the Díaz contract won’t hurt him. Locking up Sugar is a good deal. It’s too early to anoint him the next Mariano Rivera, but he’s currently the best closer in the league and his game entrance is an event.
“@WW
Closers are a dime a dozen. Jorge Lopez was an all star closer this year.”
King Floch;
Yes.
And when he got to the Twins he was relived of his closing duties in September…because he sucked.
The Orioles coaching staff made him an elite closer. Then he was traded they simply promoted Felix Bautista to close – another washed out pitcher they’d worked with – and he pitched better than Lopez.
The good teams develop their own closers. When one goes down they have back-up’s to replace them. And it’s a whole lot cheaper.
I like this deal but saying he us worth 16 million per is completely subjective. The equation you’re likely citing to get that number is highly suspect and completely opinion based.
We have a multi billion dollar owner that wants to win. This is a drop in the bucket for him! Contract is perfectly fine for what he will bring the bext couple of years and diaz brought in business this year
Seems like they were bidding against themselves
Bidding against themselves. What indication is there of that? Doesn’t seem like that to me at all.
Have they announced when the mlb draft lottery order will be determined?
I saw Tuesday, December 6th. During Winter Meetings
Hopefully the Reds get someone good in the Rule 5.
Maybe. Cincinnati has plenty of R5 eligible players of its own it needs to protect first.
Maldonado with broken hand and hernia started the game six rally by getting on base the only way he could- leaning over the plate then pulling back just enough to let the pitch bounce off his elbow protector. Hopefully he can be fully recovered when the Phillies play the Astros in 23. That way he will only have deal with some broken ribs. I’m never for bean ball play however I’d make the exception and drill this guy.
“I hate this man and would do absolutely anything to put him on base, help his counting stats, and increase the odds of his team scoring against mine, because I have gravel for brains and my father didn’t love me.”
A few things the 2022 playoffs showed…..
1. They are not a “crapshoot”; nor did the Phillies “get hot”.
The good teams were working on their roster and preparing their players for the post-season from early August.
What is the deciding factor in this new playoff alignment is what everything comes down to in MLB – MATCHUPS.
The Phillies played the Cardinals and Padres well during the season. However, the Braves soundly outplayed them and the Mets annihilated them. If the Phillies had to meet the Braves or Mets
in the playoffs they probably wouldn’t have been in the WS.
2. Tired of hearing about the AL East being the beast. The NL East is better.
The Yankees were taken to 5 games by the Guardians – the youngest team in MLB with almost all their players in their first playoff series…and they swept the Rays to get there.
The Phillies were the 3rd best team in the NL East. They lost to the Astros, but won 2 games. The Yankees got swept by the Astros.
The NL East is the best division in MLB. The NL West and AL West is now pushing the AL East….which will soon feature the Orioles as its best team.
Did you miss the division series against those Braves?
I was just going to say, they beat the Braves in the playoffs. My friend, a Braves fan, also didn’t want the Phillies in the playoffs because the Phillies handled them fine in the regular season.
No, the playoffs are a crapshoot and the Phillies got hot. Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar.
Lots of people that don’t understand things walk through life with that outlook.
Randomness doesn’t disappear because you say so after observing one year of playoffs. Your takes are usually much more sophisticated than this.
The Braves were better than tue Phillies during the regular season, but “soundly outplayed” is a bit of an overstatement.
Did you watch the games? I did……
and the Phillies are one of my favorite teams to watch.
They need to clean up a few things for 2023 and through the season. They’re close.
In addition to Lugo, May, Givens, don’t NYM also have Trevor Williams, Adam Ottaviano going to FA? That’ll be a pricey pen.
I believe they have a $4M option on Givens. They should make a concerted effort to retain Williams and Ottavino, but they may let May and Lugo walk.
I call BS when I see things like “there was no Rule 5 Draft last year” or “this was the first year in well over 100 years that the Rule 5 Draft wasn’t held in any form.” The minor league phase was held and some of those players did have MLB experience. It didn’t affect MLB 40-man rosters but it was a Rule 5 Draft. One of the top picks, Charles LeBlanc, did see significant time (48 games) on the Marlins’ MLB roster this past season.
And?