first reported at the time<\/a>, the Mets never informed D\u00edaz of their intentions to sign Williams, even though multiple club sources said they maintained an interest in signing both players.<\/p>\nAt certain points during his free agency, however, people close to D\u00edaz said that the closer did not feel wanted enough by the Mets.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realized Edwin probably feels a little disrespected by this,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said.<\/p>\n
The Mets appreciated D\u00edaz\u2019s accomplishments and personality. Over time, he learned to deftly handle ups and downs in New York City, not an easy task. But the Mets\u2019 process appeared to lack urgency, as they held firm on their preference for a deal of less than five years.<\/p>\n
Thanks to an assist from Hern\u00e1ndez, the Dodgers would seek to exploit the stalemate.<\/p>\n
D\u00edaz and Hern\u00e1ndez are close. They are both from Puerto Rico and their ties go back to when Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s father coached D\u00edaz before the latter was drafted. They played together in two World Baseball Classic tournaments. They also share the same agents, Joel Wolfe and Edwin Rodriguez, from The Team (formerly Wasserman). Rodriguez had represented both players since before they were drafted.<\/p>\n
Given their connections, Hern\u00e1ndez figured it was time to step in: \u201cI reached out to Andrew, and I let him know that I know this guy really well, and I think it\u2019s the right time to act on things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friedman responded about a day later. He asked if Hern\u00e1ndez and his wife, Mariana, could reach out to D\u00edaz and his wife, Nashaly, to share their experiences of both playing for the Dodgers and seeing how the team cares for player families. The four arranged a call, with the Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s explaining in great detail the care and comfort that he, his wife and his three sons had received over nine years with the organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him, \u2018I don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to regret it one bit if you sign here,\u2019\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of the winter, D\u00edaz didn\u2019t consider Los Angeles a potential destination. Now he was intrigued.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see the roster, they have a bunch of good players, but they always want to improve,\u201d D\u00edaz said. \u201cYou never know what the Dodgers are thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friedman\u2019s aversion to a three-year deal remained firm \u2014 except when it came to D\u00edaz. If the closer\u2019s interest was as strong as Hern\u00e1ndez indicated, might the reliever be willing to take less than the projected four- to five-year deal? Would a higher annual average value help increase those odds of him taking a shorter contract?<\/p>\n
The Dodgers have a penchant for what they term as \u201changing around the backboard\u201d \u2014 a strategy made possible by their deep-pocketed ownership group. When they see an opportunity on the market, they pounce. As the Winter Meetings got underway, Friedman realized another window was opening.<\/p>\n
![\"Edwin](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2178440097-scaled.jpg\")
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\n Edwin D\u00edaz had 144 saves and a 2.93 ERA in his Mets career. \u201cI don\u2019t have anything bad to say about them.\u201d (Sean M. Haffey \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Dave Roberts was on vacation. On the Sunday before the official start of the Winter Meetings in Orlando, Roberts was in Kansas City attending the Chiefs\u2019 game against the Houston Texans with longtime friend and Emmy-winning actor Eric Stonestreet. That\u2019s when the Dodgers\u2019 manager received a text from Friedman, asking if he\u2019d be free to hop on a videoconference call with D\u00edaz.<\/p>\n
Roberts was surprised. D\u00edaz had not come up in talks with the front office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I learned he was on our radar, we were on the Zoom call the next day,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n
By now, D\u00edaz\u2019s market was gaining clarity. League sources said the Braves checked in and explored the potential cost while the Toronto Blue Jays also expressed interest, though they stopped short of making an offer. The Dodgers made an initial three-year contract proposal, and on the day Roberts watched the Chiefs game, the Mets offered D\u00edaz a three-year deal worth $66 million that included deferrals.<\/p>\n
The following day, a Monday morning, just before his flight to the Winter Meetings, Roberts logged onto a video call from Stonestreet\u2019s house. He was joined by Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes, who had already arrived in Orlando and had called in from the team suite. D\u00edaz and Nashaly signed on from their home in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n
One particular statement stood out to D\u00edaz: \u201cThe Dodgers told me if I came to Los Angeles and we have the chance to sign you, we will make you a Hall of Famer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dodgers, multiple people on the call said, made D\u00edaz feel wanted. His wife was equally impressed. It also helped that D\u00edaz\u2019s brother Alexis briefly pitched for the organization in 2025 and raved about how he was treated. Things were beginning to line up for a seismic signing. The Dodgers sensed it as well. When the call ended, Roberts knew he had his new closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told the guys, \u2018We got him,\u2019\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIt just went so well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friedman had been skeptical, though that changed after the call. The Dodgers upped their offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat Monday, we sensed a real shift in the conversation,\u201d he said. \u201cThen it became, let\u2019s do anything and everything we can to get him to a yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Negotiations continued into that Monday night, even as Gomes downplayed the desire for a high-end closer, telling reporters that evening, \u201cThere aren\u2019t as many clear paths to make the team meaningfully better.\u201d Those comments did not match the mood of the team officials gathered in the team suite. The talks gained speed and the excitement in the room matched the pace.<\/p>\n
Around 11 p.m., assistant general manager Alex Slater found D\u00edaz\u2019s ninth-inning entrance music on YouTube and played it on the television in the suite. Not long after the familiar trumpets of \u201cNarco\u201d by Timmy Trumpet and Blasterjaxx blared through the room, the group received a noise complaint and a visit from hotel security, who asked that they tone things down.<\/p>\n
But by the following morning, the Dodgers had every reason to party.<\/p>\n
D\u00edaz agreed to a three-year, $69 million contract, with his $23 million annual average value setting a record for relief pitchers. In a matter of days, Los Angeles went from having legitimate bullpen concerns to signing the best available closer on the market, locking up the ninth inning for at least the next three years.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers could control the 32-year-old D\u00edaz for an additional season thanks to a $6.5 million conditional team option for 2029 with no buyout. The Dodgers could exercise the option if D\u00edaz has a specified injury through the end of the 2028 season, per the Associated Press, and he does not end the season or postseason healthy, or if he has a specified surgery.<\/p>\n
Neither the specific injury nor surgery has been disclosed. But if the conditional option is exercised, D\u00edaz could earn $2.5 million in performance bonuses for 2029 based on games finished: $750,000 each for 45 and 50 games and $1 million for 55.<\/p>\n
The Mets\u2019 last bid was for less, though the club had suggested it could go higher. D\u00edaz didn\u2019t give the Mets that chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did find that one perplexing. (I\u2019m) not sure exactly how Edwin arrived at that decision,\u201d Mets owner Steve Cohen said in a February interview with Mets radio broadcaster Howie Rose. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s a personal decision on his part, and I thought we made a pretty respectable bid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cohen added, \u201cI could argue our bid might have been better than the Dodgers\u2019 when you have that fourth conditional year that I don\u2019t think people were really talking about in his contract. But he made his decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is unclear exactly how far the Mets would have gone for D\u00edaz. The closer was looking for an annual average value of at least $20 million after deferrals were taken into account, league sources said, with less deferred money spread over a shorter period. But it is reasonable to think that D\u00edaz may have figured that the Mets would not hit that mark.<\/p>\n
To become a free agent in the first place, D\u00edaz opted out of a five-year, $102 million deal that set a record at the time for the richest deal for a reliever. That decision came after a stellar 2025 season in which D\u00edaz posted a 1.63 ERA over 66 1\/3 innings with 98 strikeouts.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Diaz said, his decision came down to a desire to win his first World Series and to be with a team he felt supported by.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a lot of respect for the Mets organization, players, staff, ownership,\u201d D\u00edaz said in spring training. \u201cThey treated me really good. I don\u2019t have anything bad to say about them. But at the end of the day, I\u2019m here. This is a new journey for me and I\u2019m happy to be with the Dodgers, so let\u2019s see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not since Kenley Jansen have the Dodgers boasted a traditional closer. They went five seasons without naming a ninth-inning man.<\/p>\n
Thanks to the prompting of a clubhouse staple, they now have one of baseball\u2019s best relievers for the foreseeable future. After D\u00edaz signed, Friedman joked with Hern\u00e1ndez that it was the first time a free agent had helped sign a player.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Friedman returned the favor. The Dodgers re-signed Hern\u00e1ndez two months later, bringing back a fan favorite for one more year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The three-minute voice memo Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez sent shortly before the Winter Meetings in December detailed everything worth knowing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,57,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203],"class_list":{"0":"post-674692","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-los-angeles-dodgers","10":"tag-mets","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-mets","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkmets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116396739718248535","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674692","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=674692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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