Being Major League Baseball’s top closer apparently won’t exclude Edwin Diaz from his team’s ongoing fire sale.
The Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies are interested in acquiring the the Seattle Mariners relief pitcher in a trade, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reported Sunday, citing sources. Seattle is entering a rebuilding phase and is fielding trade offers for most of, if not all, its assets. Diaz initially was believed to be among the few players Seattle was determined to retain, but the Mariners now are open to the possibility of trading a player, whose 57 saves led the majors last season and helped him win the Mariano Rivera Reliever of the Year award in 2018.
Diaz, 24, earned just $570,800 last season and won’t become arbitration-eligible until 2020. His contract expires after the 2022 season, and it would be no surprise if other teams entered the fledgling race to acquire him from Seattle.
The Phillies reportedly are in the market for a closer and have announced their intention to spend big this winter to fill their needs. Whether they’ll “blow away” the Mariners with a trade offer remains to be seen, but Seattle General manager Jerry Dipoto told The Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish last week that’s what it would take to land Diaz in a deal.
