"Díaz has the ability to opt out of his deal and he should do so. He would be walking away from $38MM over two years but he should be able to beat that, even after rejecting a qualifying offer. The best relievers generally get around $20MM on multi-year deals. Díaz himself got $102MM over five years on his current deal, plus the opt-out. got $95MM over five. Tanner Scott got $72MM over four. Liam Hendriks got $54MM over three."
"While Díaz isn't quite as good as he was a few years ago, he's still one of the best relievers around. He struck out 50.2% of batters faced in 2022 just before getting his last deal. He then missed the entire 2023 season due to right knee surgery. His 2024 and 2025 seasons have seen his strikeout rate down a bit below 40%, a big drop from 2022, but still with excellent results overall."
"Over the 2024 and 2025 seasons, Díaz tossed 120 innings with a 2.48 earned run average, 38.4% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate and 46.4% ground ball rate. He earned 48 saves in that span. Among pitchers with at least ten innings pitched over those two years, only Mason Miller had a higher strikeout rate. Díaz allowed fewer walks and got more grounders than Miller."
Teams and fanbases are turning attention to the offseason and identifying free agent targets. The right-handed reliever group is a mixed bag, including established closers, bounceback candidates and wildcards. Closers like Díaz can opt out of existing contracts and pursue multi-year deals that typically pay around $20 million per year. Díaz would forgo $38 million over two years but is projected to command more based on prior comparables. Díaz posted a 2.48 ERA across 120 innings in 2024–25 with a 38.4% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate and 46.4% ground-ball rate. Suarez can also walk away from two guaranteed years.
Read at MLB Trade Rumors
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]