The Mets announced today that right-hander Edwin Díaz has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a right shoulder impingement. Left-hander Josh Walker has been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse as the corresponding move.
It’s been a trying time for Díaz, to say the least. He missed all of 2023 after tearing the right patellar tendon in his right knee during the World Baseball Classic. He and the Mets were undoubtedly hoping for him to be healthy and back in form this year, but it hasn’t played out that way.
He has pitched 20 innings for the Mets this year, allowing 12 earned runs, a rate of 5.40 per nine. His 35.3% strikeout rate is still quite strong but a big drop from the absurd 50.2% rate he had in 2022. He’s allowed five home runs already this year, almost as many as the eight combined homers he allowed in the three seasons from 2020 to 2022. That’s why his 4.58 FIP and 2.27 SIERA are far apart, as the former assigns home runs as the fault of the pitcher whereas the latter normalizes home run rate.
Perhaps this year’s struggles have been a small sample blip caused by a clustering of some home runs, but Díaz won’t have a chance to even things out for a while. Whether the shoulder issue has been bothering him for a while or just recently cropped up isn’t known. The club also hasn’t provided any information about how long they expect the righty to be out, with the IL placement coming just minutes before today’s game.
For now, the Mets will have to proceed without Díaz in their bullpen mix for the next couple of weeks at least. That could leave Adam Ottavino taking over the closer’s role, with pitchers like Jake Diekman, Jorge López and Reed Garrett in line for setup work.
In the long term, the Mets will obviously be motivated to getting Díaz back on track. He signed a five-year, $102MM deal going into the 2023 season and is therefore going to be a part of the club’s plans through 2027, with a club option for 2028 as well. Díaz will have the opportunity to opt-out after 2025 and 2026, though his health and performance would have to trend in a better direction between now and then for that to be a consideration.
Prior to missing the 2023 season, Díaz was one of the most dominant relievers in the sport. At the time, he re-signed with the Mets, he had a 2.93 ERA in 399 1/3 innings. That included a 2022 campaign in which he posted a 1.31 ERA with a 50.2% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 46.9% ground ball rate.
Now that explains his struggles the last month.
Possibly. Or maybe not.
His history going back to Seattle has literally been hit or miss. He’s been amongst the best one year and amongst the worst another.
Remind me again why the WBC is held in the Preseason? Players go mad effort like in the post season. Another reason why MLB are a bunch of dinguses who have abhorrent critical thinking skills.
A big contract like Diaz has should have a clause like void if you ruin your career jumping up and down at the WBC
Probably should be done at all star break and MLB shuts down like the NHL and the Olympics.
MLB regular season is a garbage product now anyway so it might get the players excited. Maybe a little WBC drama spills into the MLB postseason and makes that more exciting being there are only like 6 teams who don’t make the playoffs these days.
World Baseball Classic coincides with spring training. Hold the WBC in summer, you’re disrupting the Japanese and Korean leagues as well as the US major leagues.
When would you suggest they have it?? It basically acts like an extended spring training..
Wbc is held to promote mlb globally. Note – mlb is dying in the US market. It’s not even on the radar of gen z or alphas.
Shadow Banned
abhorrent critical thinking skills.
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Ridiculous. The WBC basically replaces spring training for the players, and does nothing to interrupt anyone else’s season.
It’s perfectly logical, notwithstanding the fact that someone got hurt in a celebration.
Mentally players are going hard physically, are they really ready for that? That’s my thing about the WBC in march.
Unknown. The shoulder impingement could be caused by him attempting to compensate for reduced velocity and command.
Or he’s on the IL to work out his psych issues and the shoulder is just a cover story.
Lots of alternative narratives here. We don’t have the facts and prob never will
Agee, sounds like you just need to make up whatever truth makes you feel good and go with that!
Something is happening here but you don’t know what it is, do you Mr. Agee-Harrelson-Jones?
@armaments very clever!
Mets got busted for fraudulent use of the IL this offseason so probably they wouldn’t try it again so soon
I’m telling you Mr.Met, yet another reason why I propose reducing the season to 125 games. Clearly 162,000 Games are a lot in a season.
They got caught last year so maybe they think that nobody would expect them to do it again so soon??
Like Bill M said maybe, maybe not. He said his confidence was down and one thing that is pure speculation but comes to mind is when one is feeling down the body is more likely to be injured. This is not pseudo-science. It is a well established fact. Stress hormones, tight muscles, etc. This is why when someone is on edge we say “loosen up”. It’s not impossible to hurt your shoulder because one is “carrying a heavy load”, feels like they “have the world on the shoulders”, ” can’t carry the weight”, etc. One isn’t able to “shoulder the burden”. I’m done.lol.
Wow. If this costs him most/significant time in 2024, that sure is a tough contract for Mets after missing all of 2023. Yeah, I get the owner prints money and can afford it but still, it is what it is and it ain’t good.
“It is what it is.”
You sure it isn’t what it isn’t?”
BB – I’m sure.
2023 lost
2024 sucked then lost
2025 possibly lost if Tommy John surgery done
This is working out wonderfully
Tommy John surgery for a shoulder impingement would certainly be a novel approach.
Adam Ottovino, you’re next in line.
Right shoulder impingement. Yikes.
Feel for you, Metropolitans fans.
Wrong Josh Walker, you want this one. baseball-reference.com/players/w/walkejo03.shtml
Sounds like Diaz has been doing a lot of internal shoulder rotation exercises.
Crap.
Well that really screws us up Diaz
Yeah, cuz a player loves to get hurt just to screw the team over.
Edwin Diaz and Josh Hader are going to kill the free agent market for closers the same way Todd Gurley and Le’Veon Bell killed the free agent market for RBs in the NFL
Reading one tabloid too many? Baseball ain’t NFL.
No, just making a comparison. Relievers in baseball can be replaced fairly, just like RBs in football
That’s not a comparison, it’s Dumb Sportsball Fan Thinking and it’s a crackpot theory.
It’s actual simple economics and a reasonable thought.
Sure, it’s not a direct one for one comparison. The point is, smart teams in the NFL have realized it’s a fool’s errand to pay big money to RBs when they can be had for cheap elsewhere. Smart teams in MLB are going to shy away from paying big money to volatile relievers for the same reason
RB’s are a dime a dozen, effective closers are not, in fact few effective relievers can become reliable closers. Relievers in general are more up and down but strong closers are much harder to come by.
You’re not wrong but they’re still not worth $18-$20MM a year on a multi year deal, especially after age 30. I also think we’re going to see a lot more of these young hard throwing pitchers wind up in the bullpen due to injuries or lack of command. The talent pool for relievers is as deep as it’s ever been
I’d happily have a look at the data you’re using to support this.
No data, just an observation. Díaz has been a disaster so far two years into his deal and Hader has already given up more runs this year than all of last year. Teams are likely going to look at this contracts as cautionary tales. Plus, the pool of teams who can afford to pay big money to relievers is already slim
I don’t think it is an unreasonable comparison. I think that, within a few years, that many teams will go with the best available RP.
Of the top-11 guys listed on BR, I’d say 7 of them have a very limited history as closer.
Trade everyone
Fire everyone
Burn down citi
Or failing that, sell more tacos and pizza
Don’t forget to sell the team and fire Stearns outta here back to Milwaukee small ball boy.
John, calm down, you know the wine makes you emotional
I wonder: does Timmy Trumpet follow him into the appointments and MRIs playing his song?
Hope it isn’t serious and Diaz comes back strong.
Man to see how everything has played out since Timmy Trumpet…..
Poppa dukes always said it best….you can change the players, you can change the owner, you can change the uniforms but the Mets are always going to be the Mets.
I feel for Diaz as things are really imploding on him. On the other hand as a Yankee fan watching all these Mets players with massive contracts turn terrible is a guilty pleasure. Lindor looks like he’s 38 already and he’s signed forever…
as a Yankee fan watching all these Mets players with massive contracts turn terrible is a guilty pleasure.
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Nothing to feel guilty about. We are supposed to hate the other team. It’s healthy.
We’re supposed to hate the other team that our team is playing against. Constantly posting on a forum, about the other team in your team’s city, seems pretty childish to me. But, whatever floats your boat.
I wonder if this is related to the knee injury. By that I mean people usually compensate when they are injured and put strain elsewhere on the body. Hopefully he can bounce back quickly.
Now Alonso is down too
He’s been down all year basically right? There are a lot of guys who have been down all year. Pitching has dominated this year. If all the pitchers don’t need TJ surgery by July it should improve. I keep thinking eventually the hitters all over the league will show up someday.
The only thing separating 2024 from 1968 is the Three True Outcomes.
BTW, didja notice ex-Met Seth Lugo leads the majors in ERA and on pace to be a 20-game winner?
probably broke his hand
I’m with you. What’s up with the nonexistent power?
More like talent impingement.
Sounds like a phantom head clearing DL stint .
Pete Alonso left the game after being hit on the hand.
Everything is fine.
LOLMets
Looks like the Mets should have traded Diaz sooner. Now he’s damaged goods
The Mets have the uncanny ability to do everything wrong at every possible moment. Even when they finally do something right to improve the team, they all end up hurt.
Wouldn’t be the first closer to burn bright and burn out. If nothing else he got life changing money.
This reeks of a fake IL stint just to get him out of the spotlight for a couple weeks to try and figure out his issues.
Been dealing with a chronic shoulder impingement for 2 years. Have had several cortisone shots and have one scheduled. Can’t imagine trying to throw with any velocity.
Have you tried physical therapy at all? Had a similar thing with my shoulder and I had really good results with PT. My PT worked on my neck quite a bit and that helped resolve things in my shoulder. Hope you get things resolved. That injury is really frustrating.
I went to PT for a bone spur on my Achilles/heel. I thought it was all voodoo, but the dude got rid of it. It hurt like heck for like 8 sessions, but even us ancient ones sometimes have to concede the science.