If there’s one headliner for Friday’s almost-finalized Mets-Mariners deal, it’s Robinson Canó: name-brand recognition, an impressive history, $60 million in accompanying cash. But Edwin Díaz has a very real chance to be the most important part of this trade—because right now, he looks like the best closer in baseball.
There is, reasonably, always a little bit of skepticism about the value proposition for a reliever when looking out longer than a year or two. Díaz is under team control until 2023, but he’s also a 24-year-old fueled by a wipeout slider and a fastball that flirts with triple digits; like any pitcher with that profile, everything that makes him dazzling also puts him at risk of falling apart.