June 25: Diaz will not appeal and will start serving his suspension tonight. Joel Sherman of The New York Post was among those to relay the news on X.
June 24: As expected, Diaz has received a 10-game suspension. Jon Heyman of The New York Post was among those to relay the news on X. The righty can appeal the decision but it’s not yet clear if he will.
June 23: Mets closer Edwin Diaz was ejected from tonight’s game due to an apparent use of an illegal substance on his hands. Diaz was taking the field in the bottom of the ninth to try and preserve a 5-2 New York lead, but after the standard check every pitcher receives before entering and exiting games, crew chief Vic Carapazza tossed Diaz from the game. Drew Smith and Jake Diekman combined for a scoreless inning to preserve the Mets’ victory over the Cubs.
As per league rules, Diaz now faces a mandatory 10-game suspension for use of foreign substances. He won’t be paid for those 10 games, and the Mets aren’t allowed to replace him on the roster, so the club will have to field a 25-man roster over the course of Diaz’s suspension. Diaz has the right to an appeal, so it is possible he might receive fewer than a 10-game ban, even if that scenario is rather unlikely given the seemingly apparent evidence.
Diaz is the third Mets pitcher in the last two seasons to be tossed for a game for use of an illegal substance, as both Smith and Max Scherzer received 10-game suspensions during the 2023 campaign. Similar suspensions were issued to the Astros’ Ronel Blanco earlier this season, and to Robert Suarez and Domingo German last year.
Tonight’s incident is the latest turn in an up-and-down comeback season for Diaz, who missed all of the 2023 season due to a torn patellar tendon. Diaz has a 4.70 ERA over 23 innings and 23 appearances this season, recording seven saves in 11 chances. While he looked pretty close to his past All-Star form early in the year, a few shaky outings led the Mets to move Diaz into lower-leverage situations, and he was then sidelined entirely due to a shoulder impingement.
The right-hander missed a little over three weeks due to the injury, and has looked sharp in his three outings since being activated off the 15-day IL. Diaz has tossed three scoreless innings and earned two saves and a win in those three games, while allowing two hits and no walks, and striking out three batters.
He’ll now get another unwelcome break from action while serving his suspension, leaving the Mets likely to return to the closer committee approach they used earlier this season when Diaz was both injured and out of the closer’s role. Diaz’s absence throws a wrench into the momentum of a New York that has won 13 of its last 17 teams, and gotten back into the hunt for a wild card berth.
Bro is having some kinda two year stretch.
This why you don’t pay relievers, it is quite possibly the most volatile positioning sport. Very few are consistently good for consecutive years.
*position in sports
Make that “position in baseball”.
Very few exceptions to the rule, Mariano Rivera is one of the few.
foreign substances weren’t inspected on pitcher’s hands and glove after every inning pitched when Rivera was active
You can’t prove that he did cheat anymore than you can prove that he didn’t
And Hoffman, Lee Smith, wagner, and most of the rest of the 300+ saves club. Jansen and Kimbrel too.
Relief Pitcher’s are like place kicker’s in the NFL. In that their performance can change drastically from one year to the next. And unless you have one of the best in the league(i.e.Mo Rivera/Justin Tucker) you’re always going to be nervously sweating out those final 3-outs or that last second game winning 45- yard FG attempt.
If you do pay them then they can afford spider tack!
Or is that just in the Cohen clubhouse budget?
I mean Diaz has been for the most part
He better get right before he ends up as a Taco Bell spokes man.
RE: Shadow
Funny that Diaz flaming out still is more successful than you
What’s wrong with Taco Bell????
“HI I’m Edgwin Dias, formore MLB pisher” I can see it now
This got a solid laugh from me
Hawk tuah
Spit on that thang!
His fingers had some kind of funk on them. They were zoned in on something inside his glove too. Umpire was just looking at the glove and his fingers, and then looking at Diaz like, “Nah, bruh. Nah.”
Pressure changes everything.
These guys want to succeed so badly and live up to the expectations that it must really weigh on them psychologically. In many ways I feel for a guy like this. Not condoning the action but looking behind the reasoning and having empathy.
It’s also subjective so they are likely pushing the envelope to see what they can get away with. We only hear about the guys who get caught. There’s probably plenty of situations where guys have stuff on their hands and the umps let it go because they feel like it doesn’t reach the threshold for ejection.
If pitchers are smart, they would put it in their hair or on their belt, or even socks. Umps don’t check there!
The old hair gel trick. Hair gel + sweat can make a pretty sticky concoction. You aren’t the first person to think of this.
I believe Maxwell Smart started the trend lol
@gww
they check belts or are supposed to atleast and its kind of obvious is you put your hands on your hair often as most dont regularly run their hands through there hair or adjust their socks regularly. A manager will call that out and have it checked within a few pitches.
If they were smart they would have the catcher hide it in the vest or somewhere. The pitcher wont have anything on them and the catcher can sticky it up and toss it back. They never have their hands checked. They always adjusting themselves so easy enough to sneak it in.
Might also be a loophole as catchers dont pitch and the pitcher doesnt have the foreign substance. Its against the spirit of the rule but not the word until they close that loophole.
the problem with that is if the umpire accidentally touches the tainted ball or a fan in the stands catches a tainted foul ball for example
It’s too much of a risk for the catcher to be rubbing a foreign substance on the ball
how often does an umpire touch a ball that has been used maybe 2 or 3 times in a game at most and thats usually for the pitcher asking for a new ball and throws back the old one. If the pitcher tosses him a tacked ball he deserves to be caught.
Also if a fan catches a ball do you think they really would know if its a got a little bit of tack to it? Probably got sticky fingers from beer, soda, ice cream, etc etc from the concession stands with the sodas.
The only thing i would worry about is if its end of the inning and the next teams pitcher catches it. give it a quick rub in the dirt when you roll it back 🙂
And $1.3MM+ forfeited for the 10-game suspension.
The reason is hitters have advantages thanks to the last 30 years of baseball evolution and two baseball commissioners who wanted this to happen.
Oh look, a political discussion triggering people, goodie!
PEDs, illicit underage relationships, illegal gambling, foreign substances…
Mlb has turned into a dark seedy nightclub run by al capone
lolMets
Another feather in the muts cap
Muts? Good one.
His brain is a hamster on a wheel
The curse of Spider Tack…attacks again. What next for the Mets?
A hastily-called press conference to announce that several, current unnamed players engaged in dog-fighting and Ayahuasca-centered demonic rituals.
It’d make more sense if it read “getting drowned out in their own ballpark by Yankee fans during the Subway Series”.
Crap
Diaz – what really happened was the clubhouse door was hot and greasy that day so it must have been when I used the railing to
go up the stairs.
was literally nothing even the broadcast said this was dumb. Rosen and sweet. they saw nothing wrong with him and they zoomed on the sticky looking hand and said bull pen cams were on him the whole time
I’m baffled when people have this take. Pitchers get checked every game. Umps see rosen and sweat all the time. This was obviously out of the ordinary. Also important to remember that you’re not supposed to have any rosin on you from the bullpen. That’s supposed to be washed off before using what’s on the mound. Clearly Diaz was using excess rosin (from the bullpen) or some other illegal substance. He was testing the limit and got caught.
Von you are correct.
These umpires check ever single pitcher, if you look at the dudes hand it’s as clear as can be. You may be slightly biased
Mets will get a handle on this sticky situation soon.
metsfan
“was literally nothing even the broadcast said”
How would the broadcaster know, from hundreds of feet away, what was on Diaz?
Exactly! And whose broadcasters was the metsfan79 listening to? I’m sure it wasn’t the Cubs broadcasters. There’s always two sides to the story.
ESPN, not Mets or Cubs
It was ESPN, He might have been fooled by the fact that the play by play announcer was Boog from the Cubs.
“I’m sure it wasn’t the Cubs broadcasters”, are you sure because maybe there was no Cubs broadcast?
Do you usually make sweeping statements about events you didn’t even watch?
Wait! Tell me again. What reason is there REALLY to watch a 4th place team 2 games under .500 play a last place team 5 games under .500?
ayeah
“Wait! Tell me again. What reason is there REALLY to watch a 4th place team 2 games under .500 play a last place team 5 games under .500?”
The enjoyment of the game.
Watching select players. Even the worst teams have interesting players.
You’re welcome
The broadcast really didn’t say that either, aj pierzinski and many other former Big leaguers have come out and said they’ve never seen a hand look like that.
AJ said he saw Kenny Rogers hand once that had pine tar all over it, was the most similar. But to most, this is obvious
So the guys in the broadcast booth are right, and the guy that actually touching whatever it was, is wrong? That’s your best take?
It was literally something!!! Who cares what the “broadcast” said he broke the rules serve your punishment and come back…. It’s not that hard…. Fan is short for fanatic every team has had cheaters don’t make it right….. he broke the rules take your punishment….. no excuses
metsfan79: What’s Rosen’s first name and what’s so sweet about him?
It’s just some Grimace Shake.
Hang out with Grimace long enough, you start getting mistaken for Ronald…
Woe is Mets, LOL
LOL you did a Shakespeare! Congrats!!!
“Let me tellya … that guy was philthy !”
Diaz is standup guy. known for accountability, being great teammate and owning up like a man.
A lot of posts in this thread are ridiculously one-sided, with zero reference to Diaz’s side of the story.. Shame on you. And I believe him. He was using his usual substance mixture which is within in the rules and has been checked by umps every outing like every pitcher He wasn’t deliberately cheating.. On Sunday however, that mixture became more tacky and led to his ouster and suspension. No way would he deliberately cheat, hurt himself and his team. It would in fact be the ultimate team and self-sabotage if this was deliberately done under current team and personal circumstances. That’s just not Diaz.
@LongTimeFan1, HaHa! When was the last time you sat down and had a drink and talked about life and family with Diaz?
What??? That’s irrelevant.
Whats relevant is his reputation, history, and his circumstance.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, is better than winning 13 out of your last 17 teams.
Winning 51 of your last 77 is better.
But there’s not even 77 teams
I didn’t say teams. I’m not even sure what the OP meant by winning 17 teams.
Well, teams is what the article said 🙂
“Beating 13 out of your last 17 teams.” I get it now. The phrase winning threw me off.
I, for one, have zero issue with pitchers trying to obtain more grip on the baseball for one main reason: MLB owns the company making the baseballs. It’s a significant conflict of interest, and MLB has been doctoring the baseballs to their narrative for quite some time.
A pitcher obtaining a little more grip on a baseball gains a modicum amount of extra spin or velocity. It also helps the pitcher control the ball into the strike zone better. I personally think it’s GOOD for baseball.
With MLB implementing the highly divisive pitch clock, and their numerous missteps in nearly all facets, you would think that they would want to avoid any additional reasons to put negative spotlights on their game. The organization is being ran by out-of-touch geriatrics who are more worried about ensuring “pride month” is celebrated than elevating the game.
Scrap
“I, for one, have zero issue with pitchers trying to obtain more grip on the baseball”
That’s why they allow rosin
“ensuring “pride month” is celebrated”
Maybe you’d like to give a few more thoughts on this
You make it sound like the two are mutually exclusive. I would like to believe that MLB today is more in-touch than ever recently implementing better pay for minor leaguers and rewarding high-performance, pre-arb players. I’m not a fan of the pitch-clock but the game needs to evolve and these things are always a work in progress. Stumbles by all parties will be made along the way and expected.
They are mutually exclusive. The better pay across the board is due large-in-part to the players association. It’s not coming from the corporate side of MLB. MLB has no interest in truly offering pay parity, their only interest is profit; hence, they control the actual baseball, so they control the outcome(s).
@Scrap Don’t bother with Latino-reincarnated “filihok”. We may get his French version next.
Au revoir!
You lost me when you injected bigotry into your post.
@longtimfan, it’s not bigotry, it’s fact. I simply stated that they needed to adjust their focus to appeal to the majority. The fact that you and that other cry baby call it bigotry says a lot more about your lack of character than mine.
True bigots look for reasons to call others bigots. Your raised your flag high and found a reason to be offended when you took what was posted and twisted it to appeal to your lack of mental ability.
Another cheater. Let’s hope MLB gets a proper commissioner that will place a ban on all players found to be using PED and foreign substances and is retroactive to 1820.
This rule is so bogus. An umpire checks and subjectively makes a decision based on their feel. There are types of substances on the mound and on a hot night it’s been shown that they can cause the ball to stick to someone’s hand without them holding onto the ball. If they’re going to suspend people for a “foreign substance” than the league has to identify and test for what that substance is. Swab his hand, it can’t be that hard. This makes the league look like a bigger joke than it already is.
It would have been a bigger joke to let him continue to pitch with the hand the way it looked. The minute any average person sees it, it’s immediately odd.
But by all means.
KP
By all means, suspend a player because their hand looked “odd” to an average person.
Yes… Test him. If an umpire sees or feels anything out of the ordinary, he’s directed to do something about it. What would it take for you to remove a pitcher from the game?
Tell me what you would need to see before it rises to an actionable level?
KP
Test how?
It’s very difficult, probably impossible, for this to be done objectively.
It’s one of many reasons I went from fanatic to casual fan. I usually just check box scores and standings these days. I’m glad the sport is thriving despite all of its’ stupidity.
He should have saved it for a team that can actually hit.
drew smith from the mets was also tossed last yr and suspended 10 gms. he said it was nothing illegal, just sweat+rosin+dirt. in the yr since, smith says he hasnt changed a single thing, hasnt done anything different.
3 Mets pitchers have been suspended for sticky stuff. MLB has only suspended 7 players total. Whatever your feeling about the rules, the Mets are doing something that other teams aren’t.
Like this isn’t a court proceeding, it’s very crazy that someone sees this and thinks that’s somehow acceptable.
I wonder what would it take for these same people to throw out a pitcher
WHAT SAY YOU, BRIAN KENNY??
COWARD
Ha ha ha eat an eggplant Steve Cohen
Hmmm, LongTimeFan1 must be Diaz in disguise. He all of sudden must have gotten suspended from MLB Trade Rumors site for sticky keyboard too. Because he vanished from here.
I’m a she and I haven’t vanished.
I apologize. I stand corrected. I guess the word I heard from all the others that knew you, and gave me the impression you were an upstanding honest decent guy were wrong.
Why do I hear “but I’m telling you, it’s not mine” in my head?
Probably my oddball sense of humor.
I think it’s umpires manipulating their fandual acounts.
Mets gonna Met…
I thought if Edwin just gripped it on center, threw it like a football with a stiff wrist that would be good enough for him.
That Grip, Tilt and Wrist action are the cues for the Roger Beshens Football Slider. That’s the reason Heffner and Blake are in NY and Katz at chico state.
I don’t hear Glasnow complaining anymore about a slippery grip,
He may have realized it was the bad grip and/or tilt he had on that RB Football Slider that caused his TJ.
What a great guy this Diaz is.
If pitchers can’t have “substances” deemed illegal, time to tell hitters they can no longer use pine tar, batting gloves, hand protectors or bat grips.
Let’s have an even playing field. Tilting the scales to allow hitters to do what they want, wear what they want and basically get away with anything they want is unfair to pitchers who are heavily restricted.
It’s time to bring back the sharp belt buckle…….most baseballs today aren’t in play more than a few pitches so the evidence of a nice cut is gone……..then they “don need no stinking sticky sh….stuff”.
Gosh, another great contract signing by the Mets. Before you know it, they will be so broke they will have to install metal trashcans in the bullpen……..
He seems to be in a sticky situation!
Is this a one-off or does he have a substance abuse problem?
I want to know why only the player is punished for this? I think the Bullpen and Pitching, coaches, as well as the manager should be given suspensions. One or two games for them would clean up this problem!
How is that fair to other players to not have a manager and coaches who may not be aware nor complicit? Using your suggestion is a quick way to destroy a clubhouse.
Didn’t appeal? So, he knew he was breaking the rule.
That and taking 10 games to rest up.
Players usually appeal to get a reduction in the suspension. Not appealing is quite telling.
Batters use batting gloves to get a better grip on the bat, pitchers should be able to use a glove to get a better grip on balls
WOW! Rodney King once said: Why can’t we just all get along. He had a tough live and still regretted seeing all the destruction around him, regardless of the motivations of the parties. May we have a calmer and better night tonight!
EdLose Diaz