The New York Mets agreed to terms with all but one of their 26 pre-arbitration-eligible players, with closer Edwin Diaz as the only outlier, with the team choosing to renew the 24-year-old’s contract. As per Joel Sherman of the New York Post, Diaz is set to earn $607,425 in 2019. Sherman also offered a bit more clarity on the situation.
“[This] means the sides didn’t reach an agreement. The team has a formula for pre-arbitration guys,” Sherman tweeted. [The Mets do] not punish [players] by paying them the [MLB minimum; $555,000], but rather the amount that they would have if he would have agreed to the deal.”
Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen spoke to the media, as well (video via Matt Ehalt of The Record).
“We have a formula that has been in place for a few years and the design of this formula is, effectively, to treat every player equally — players in the past, players in the present, and players that will follow in the future,” Van Wagenen said. “We’ve got a consistent measure for how people are going to be compensated as [pre-arbitration] players.”
Tim Britton’s (currently of The Athletic) article from the Providence Journal in 2016 summarizes the Red Sox’ approach to these scenarios. It’s an excellent read/crash course in the process.
Since Diaz has two years and 121 days of MLB service time, just shy of the typical two years and 130 days cutoff for Super Two designation, he will not be arbitration-eligible until next year, his 25-year-old season.
Diaz’ agent, Edwin Rodriguez, when asked if his contract renewal “harms relationships with the Mets” by Sherman, seemed reserved to the fact that this is simply how it is for young players.
“Not really. We understand this is a business,” Rodriguez said. “And at the end of the day, Diaz can only deal with the things he can control and that is playing baseball.”
Last year for the Mariners, Diaz pitched to a 1.96 earned-run average, 1.61 fielding independent pitching rating, with 15.22 strikeouts and 2.09 walks per nine innings, a 1.78 xFIP, 3.5 wins above replacement (FanGraphs), and an MLB-leading 57 saves over 73 appearances (73.1 innings).
In his lone Grapefruit League appearance for the Mets this spring, the right-hander notched one perfect inning in an 8-7 loss to the Astros on Saturday.
