Devin Williams should get a cut of Edwin Diaz’s signing bonus.
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman revealed that his team only seriously considered signing Diaz after the Mets brought in Williams.
“He was at the top of the list, but starting the offseason we just didn’t think it was that realistic,” Friedman told SportsNet LA on Friday after welcoming Diaz to Los Angeles.
“We logged in our interest call, made sure and checked in but it was very much in the back of our mind like, ‘Let’s not waste a ton of time on this.’ The likelihood that he’ll leave New York seems really low, and it wasn’t until Devin Williams signed with the Mets that I think two or three minutes later called the agent, checked in, and noticed a little bit more openness.
“That’s when we started to get work on it and it wasn’t until Monday night, really into Tuesday morning that we felt like, ‘OK, we got a real shot here.’”
The Dodgers signing Diaz is one of the most stunning moves of the offseason since most expected he would stay in Flushing due to his individual success with the team and the owner Steve Cohen’s deep pockets.
Free agency is never a given, though, and the Mets had to operate in free agency with the idea they could possibly lose the flamethrower.
They acquired Williams for three years and $51 million on Dec. 1, a move that gave them a top setup man had they retained Diaz and a potential closer replacement if Diaz left.
The Mets still tried to land Diaz, but they would not go to the lengths the Dodgers would.
The Dodgers offered three years and $69 million while the Mets came in at $66 million, although that included some wiggle room.
The Post reported that the Mets did not help their cause by dumping pitching coach Jeremy Hefner in a move that left Diaz unhappy.
“Once you add to a certain part of your team, that will change the calculus in how you look at your team in general,” Stearns told reporters earlier this week at the winter meetings.
“We are very pleased to be able to add Devin, we think he’s a really good reliever, one of the best relievers in baseball, and I think we’re going to see that.”
The Mets now will have Williams as their closer following his uneven year with the Yankees, and Stearns didn’t rule out the team adding another high-end bullpen piece.
It’s fair to expect those to be lesser pieces at lower costs, with the market thinning after the Braves signed ex-Padres closer Robert Suarez and the Blue Jays inking ex-Met Tyler Rogers.
While the Mets are left searching for aggregate pieces to offset that loss, the Dodgers are thrilled to have Diaz in the ninth inning in an attempt to win a third straight World Series.
“That domino effect down, by adding someone like that at the top … just how that lengthens a bullpen,” Friedman said, “we’re really excited about the options we’ll have both right-handed and left-handed and just the depth of arms and talent that we’ll have to kind of navigate a really strong season and hopefully have a really strong group going into October.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
