Edwin Díaz, RP

Position: Closer   B/T: R/R
Player Data: Age: 31 (03/22/1994)

2025 Traditional Stats: 28 SV, 66.1 IP (62 G), 1.63 ERA, 0.874 WHIP, 6-3, 98 SO, 18 BB
2025 Advanced Stats: 248 ERA+, 2.28 FIP, 2.49 xFIP, 2.40 xERA, 38.0% K%, 8.1% BB%, 3.0 bWAR, 2.0 fWAR

Grade: A+

2025 Review

Simply put, Edwin Díaz was excellent in 2025. In a bullpen that was often unreliable more times than reliable, Carlos Mendoza was always able to call on his closer when needed and see him deliver. Díaz’s Queens career has been a rollercoaster since joining the team from the Mariners with Robinson Cano. His first year in Queens was rocky (he posted a 5.59 ERA), with an up and down 2020 and 2021. However, he broke out in 2022, but tore his patellar tendon during the World Baseball Classic and missed the 2023 season. 2024 saw more choppy waters before Díaz returned to smooth sailing in 2025.

Dìaz was named to his third All-Star team and finished the season with his second-best career ERA. However, before he posted those numbers, Díaz struggled to find his footing in the first month of the season. He finished April with six saves (six opportunities), but gave up seven runs (six earned), the most he would allow in a month in 2025. His ERA ballooned to 4.91 at the end of the month, and he struggled to close out games with an efficient pitch count, throwing 208 pitches in April, once more the most amount he would throw in a single month.

However, Díaz was lights out from May until the All-Star break, allowing just one run in 25 games. He was efficient, striking out batters left and right (35 punch outs), limiting his walks to just six in that time span. (The breakout, it seems, correlates with when he worked with a training to make sure both his legs were the same length?) For comparison, he walked seven batters in April. Díaz earned National League Reliever of the Month honors for June before joining his fellow teammates in Atlanta for the All-Star Game.

Like the rest of the Mets’ pitching staff, Díaz faltered in August, posting a 4.00 ERA in nine innings of work, struggling to work efficiently once more. He only tallied one save (in one opportunity), but dominated in September once more, posting a 0.61 ERA with 19 strikeouts and three walks allowed in 14.2 innings of work.

Unsurprisingly, Díaz’s best pitch in 2025 was his slider. He had a nine run value on the pitch, 15th-best in MLB. Batters mustered a .179 average against the slider with an expected average of .161. Hitters whiffed 44% of the time on Díaz’s slider, and Edwin ranked in the 99th percentile in whiff percentage overall (41.5%). His expected ERA (2.39) and expected batting average (.173) also landed Díaz in the 99th percentile, the top one percent in all of baseball. Only Josh Hader and Mason Miller had better expected batting averages and strikeout percentages than Díaz.

The cherry on top of it all? Díaz baffled both lefties and righties at the plate. Righties hit just .171/.269/.229 against Díaz with one home run, while lefties struggled mightily, hitting .158/.248/.258. Game 162, where Díaz appeared in the fifth inning, the earliest appearance in a game for him in his career, proved that Díaz is a team player. He was ready for anything and ready to help the team. Overall, it was a successful 2025 in Queens for Edwin.

2026 Overview

While Díaz noted he would have to think about opting out of the five-year, $102 million deal he signed with the Mets after the 2022 season, he will likely opt out. However, it’s important to note that the Mets and Díaz negotiated this deal within the exclusive five-day window after the World Series. Díaz has made it clear he loves playing in Queens and would love to continue to do so, and the Mets and All-Star might negotiate in this window once more before he hits the free agent market.

Wherever he goes, Díaz will continue to profile as an elite closer with no signs of slowing down. While his four-seamer has seen a decrease in average exit velocity over the past couple of seasons (99.1 mph in 2022, 97.5 mph in 2024 and 97.2 mph in 2025), he’s landed in either the top one or two percentiles in expected ERA in the past three seasons.

Díaz will continue to struggle at times with control (he landed in the 51st and 46th percentiles in 2022 and 2025, his best seasons as a Met), but he’s delivered at least 20 saves in seven of his eight full MLB seasons (not including the COVID-shortened 2020 season). At 31, Díaz is still in his prime as a reliever and closer, and will continue down the path he’s on for the foreseeable future.