{"id":572335,"date":"2026-02-14T15:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T15:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/572335\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T15:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T15:17:15","slug":"edwin-diaz-joining-dodgers-was-perplexing-to-steve-cohen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/572335\/","title":{"rendered":"Edwin Diaz joining Dodgers was ‘perplexing’ to Steve Cohen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edwin Diaz\u2019s defection to the Dodgers still isn\u2019t quite adding up for Steve Cohen.<\/p>\n

The Mets\u2019 owner was asked during an interview with longtime radio voice Howie Rose<\/a> about the star closer bolting for the two-time defending World Series champions in free agency this winter after seven years in Queens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cohen still seemed to be searching for an answer for how things worked out, as Diaz signed a three-year, $69 million contract with Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did find that one perplexing,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure exactly how Edwin arrived at that decision. Obviously, it\u2019s a personal decision on his part and I thought we made a pretty respectable bid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mets offered the 31-year-old Diaz $3 million less but reportedly had \u201cwiggle room\u201d to go higher.<\/p>\n

The three-time All-Star said during his introductory press conference with the Dodgers that his decision wasn\u2019t about the money.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy. I spent seven years in New York \u2014 they treated me great,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cI chose the Dodgers because they\u2019re a winning organization<\/a>. I\u2019m looking to win, and I think they have everything to win, so picking the Dodgers was pretty easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EdwinEdwin Diaz is his new Dodgers gear. JASON SZENES FOR THE CALIFORNIA POST<\/p>\n

Diaz and the Mets reached the postseason just twice during his seven years there, including losing to the Dodgers in six games in the 2024 NLCS.<\/p>\n

The Mets were prepared if things did not go their way with Diaz, having already signed closer Devin Williams to a three-year, $51 million pact.<\/p>\n

Cohen praised David Stearns,\u00a0his president of baseball operations, for his forward thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it was getting hot and heavy when this was coming down,\u201d Cohen said, \u201cI felt pretty good about the fact that we had signed Devin Williams. I described it to David, that was pretty clever because it was a really good hedge in case it was an unfavorable outcome with Edwin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDelivering insights on all things Amazin\u2019s\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Mets by Mike Puma, exclusively on Sports+\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Diaz was among the best closers in Mets history and was coming off a season with a 1.63 ERA and 28 saves, even as the team collapsed and missed the playoffs by one win.<\/p>\n

His departure was part of an overhaul of the team\u2019s roster after that disappointing finish.<\/p>\n

Stearns did not re-sign Diaz or Pete Alonso and traded away Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil.<\/p>\n

\"MetsMets owner Steve Cohen was surprised by Edwin Diaz\u2019s exit. Mets\/YouTube<\/p>\n

Cohen, like most Mets fans fell some of the uneasiness of breaking up the core of the franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt it too, by the way,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cThe players that left were the players that I started with in my ownership, Day 1. And so I had developed pretty close relationships with some of these players. From a personal standpoint, I really felt it. First time I\u2019ve ever been through something like that. That creates anxiety when people leave.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edwin Diaz\u2019s defection to the Dodgers still isn\u2019t quite adding up for Steve Cohen. The Mets\u2019 owner was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,1087,57,101,4,2046,1690,61,2548,4203,185,1192],"class_list":{"0":"post-572335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-edwin-diaz","10":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","11":"tag-mets","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-mlb-free-agency","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-mets","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkmets","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-steve-cohen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116069653275224603","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}