Edwin Diaz’s struggles may finally be loosening his grip on the Mets’ closing job, as manager Mickey Callaway told reporters (including Newsday’s Tim Healey) that “I don’t think we can lock ourselves in to one thing” in terms of who pitches the ninth inning. “Moving forward, it’s just something that we’re going to do whatever we can to win a game that night,” Callaway said. After a dominant 2018 season with the Mariners, Diaz’s first season in Queens has been a borderline disaster, with a 5.44 ERA inflated by a 22.2% home run rate and a huge increase in the righty’s hard-hit ball rate. Just when it seemed like Diaz might have been turning a corner by tossing six scoreless innings over a seven-game stretch in July, he proceeded to allow at least one earned run in each of his last four outings.
This would seem to open the door for Seth Lugo to receive save opportunities, as Callaway said that Lugo also isn’t operating out of an assigned role. Lugo has been the Mets’ best reliever this season, and could be shifted into closer duties or (if the Mets strayed from the traditional closer role) be saved only for highest-leverage situations, whether those are in the ninth inning or earlier in the game.
Here’s more as we begin a new week…
- The Rays’ busy trade deadline is explored by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, who includes the detail that the club wasn’t willing to discuss moving many of their top prospects, including Wander Franco, Brendan McKay, Vidal Brujan and Matthew Liberatore. Jesus Sanchez was the only member of that top tier who seemed to be on the block, and indeed it was Sanchez who was dealt along with Ryne Stanek to the Marlins in exchange for Trevor Richards and Nick Anderson.
- Meanwhile, Stanek’s erstwhile role as an opener factored into the Rays’ decision to trade the right-hander. Interestingly, Topkin writes that the Rays “shed the uncertainty of his opener-influenced arbitration case in 2021,” which promises to be a fascinating test case for how an arbiter could put a financial precedent on a new role within the game. As Topkin notes, Stanek has been much better as an opener (2.71 ERA in 83 innings) than in a normal relief role (4.73 ERA in 59 innings).
- The Brewers believe they might have a hidden gem in trade deadline acquisition Ray Black, as president of baseball operations David Stearns told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Black has “as good…stuff as any reliever in the game.” Black had only a 6.04 ERA over 25 1/3 career Major League innings as a member of the Giants, due in part to five homers allowed in that brief stint. However, he also struck out 38 batters with his blazing fastball, and also posted a 3.70 ERA, 2.83 K/BB rate, and 16.8 K/9 over 153 1/3 career frames in the minors. Between that live arm and those strikeout totals, Stearns thinks Black can blossom in Milwaukee, and pointed to a relatively healthy season for Black in 2019 as a positive development after multiple years shortened by injuries. “The most important thing for him is keeping him on the field….He has changed some of his training regimens over the last year, and that seems to have helped. We’re hoping and optimistic that we can help keep him healthy,” Stearns said.
Wrong Wander Franco link
I’m sorry. But black will probably never be a dominant reliever. He’s already 29 and has a major injury history. He had trouble pitching in the pitcher friendly park of AT&T. He has great stuff. But his control and command are not serviceable. I’m sorry brewers fans, but you lost this trade.
Wrkng because any player can go forward and backwards…ask Chris sake
Kirby Yates became one if the best relievers on the planet this year at 31.
As a Brewers fan I have to agree. Just in general we lost at the deadline. Traded Dubon for mediocre pitching and sold so low on Aguilar for more mediocre pitching. Stearns just messed up in general this season. He just doesn’t seem to care about pitching quality he just wants quantity.
That’s a bit short-sighted. All Crew fans knew going in that the rotation was going to be an issue. But we’re still in the thick of this race, which is where you want to be. Granted, if we’d have just swept the Cubs instead of being swept, we’d likely be feeling much more positive about the trades. You have to pay a steep price for pitching at the deadline, and Stearns had to pay dearly. The Aguilar project is over and Dubon didn’t have a spot. We’ll root for him, but that’s the risk you take at the deadline.
Dubon is 25 and hasn’t shown a whole lot yet.
Black was sort of like Hunter Strickland 2.0 for the Giants. He could throw 100mph, but big leaguers seemed to have no problem taking him to the bank. Add to that command issues and the injury history, and things look pretty bleak. Wish him well on the Brewers. Hoping they can get more out of him than the G-men did, and hoping that the trade is a win-win for both sides. But it sure looks like the Brewers got hosed to me.
“As Topkin notes, Stanek has been much better as an opener (2.71 ERA in 83 innings) than in a normal relief role (4.73 ERA in 59 innings).”
I’ve always wondered that. That a relief pitcher would do better opening the game because it’s the team’s first time at bat, first time going through the order.
The Rays openers are high octane guys. I wonder if hitters have more trouble with 100 mph heaters right out of the chute. Fascinating stuff.
If anything I would think it would be tougher in the first inning since he always faces the top of the lineup. I would chalk it up to more of a small sample size thing where a few bad outings end up skewing the stats more than any difference in ability
trading an important player on your team simply because you fear what they will make in their first arb year is completely stupid, especially in a deal like the one Stanek was dealt in.
Important player….? I hope you don’t mean Stanek, the stats are right there for you to read. He wasn’t important
except he was. He was one of the first guys to buy in to their system and the first to have success. He is what gave them the ability to do that. Now they’re going to trade every opener they use until Staneks case just so they don’t pay 5 million instead of 4 million?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you cannot count on relievers for consistency. Every reliever is a failed starter. Eventually, everyone is figured out, but relievers especially because the bullpen helps mask their shortcomings to give you the illusion that they have it figured out.
The dentist’s of baseball.
Edwin Diaz’s struggles may finally be loosening his grip on the Mets’ closing job,
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This is the response to those not wanting to trade a guy because he has several years of control left. If he loses his job, his value just got gutted.
A lot of Rays fans were happy to offer Jesus Sanchez in trade. I personally was not and hoped to keep him in the organization. While the relievers we traded for filled a need and are working out for now I feel we lost a damn good prospect and should have at least gotten more out of the deal if the team was open to traded Sanchez at all. Go figure, he just hit 2 homers and a double for the Fish the other day.
We got a starter with 4 years of control and a reliever who is predicted to be above above average with 5 years of control for a prospect who has shown little in Triple A and who scouts have predicted may struggle to hit because of his long swing and he’s blocked in the outfield for years to come by mainstays. He was expendable