Mariners Edwin Diaz Removed from the Closer Role: Fantasy Fallout

Edwin Diaz has been removed from the closer role by the Mariners. What is the fantasy fallout of the news?

As the MLB season reaches mid-May, one of the key storylines of the has been turmoil in the backend of multiple team’s bullpens. Whether it be injury or lack of performance, it seems as the closer carousel never ends. The way the Mariners luck as gone this season, if I were to tell someone that Edwin Diaz was removed from the closer role, one would think he is hurt. But, that is not the case, as Seattle has simply removed him from the role. What is the fantasy impact of the news?

I will be the first to admit it, I was all-in on Diaz heading into the season and even projected him to be a top-5 RP. All the makings were there for him to break out and join the elite tier of fantasy relievers. He had tremendous success last season, looked to be on a very competitive team and the arsenal could not get any better.

But, there is a reason that baseball is not played on paper. Diaz has struggled mightily this season. He has a 5.28 ERA/7 SV/20 K/1.37 WHIP line over 16 appearances. He has already blown two saves, one this week, and his last outing forced the Mariners hand in making a move. Diaz walked four batters, surrendered two runs and could only register one out before being yanked.

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Looking further at his stat line, owners will see that he has already given up four homers in 2017, only one less than he had over 49 games with the club last season. Combine that with the fact that he has 10 walks already compared to only 15 last season as well, and it is easy to see why things have not gone so smoothly.

The graphic below is basically a pitch track of where Diaz has been in the zone this season. The first three areas that stick out are of course the most common areas he is missing. It is not a surprise to see a pitcher that utilizes a slider over 35% of the time to miss low and away, but Diaz is missing there, but also not able to bury the slider in versus lefties, or away from righties. Clearly, those are two areas that pitchers try to exploit when possessing the type of slider he has.

Missing up in the zone is not the worst thing a guy that throws 97 mph can do. Yet, when over 24% of his pitches are near the center of the plate, issues are bound to arise. It is clear that Diaz has something mechanically flawed and that is playing a huge part in the decision to remove him.

When Mariners’s pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. was asked what mechanical changes they had to work through when it came to Diaz, he stated:

"I’m just trying to teach him how to use his body down the slope so his arm can go with it and he can hopefully repeat pitches down the slope and the other end of the plate, something he’s never really had a handle on."

This fits right in line with what his pitch chart is speaking to and the fact that he just can not seem to figure out a repeatable delivery right now. The Mariners will continue to enlist him out of the bullpen, but in lower leverage situations until he rights the ship.

From a fantasy perspective, Diaz is still worth rostering because he should provide HLD league value while he gets his mechanics back in line. He still has an electric arm and it would not be a surprise to see him back in the closer role sooner rather later based on the stuff and the focused tweaking.

In his place, the Mariners have thrown out a bevy of name to possibly man the ninth inning. Mark Rzepczynski, Nick Vincent, former closer Steve Cishek and Tony Zych were offered as potential replacements. While Zych was the the man called out of the bullpen to clean up Diaz’s four walk disaster, the best speculative add is Cishek.

Cishek is the only option with plenty of closer experience and pitched well before tearing the labrum in both hips last season. He just returned from the DL as well, so owners looking SV should give him a look.

Next: Fantasy Baseball: Under the radar AL West prospects

Edwin Diaz is still a tremendous talent. The 23-year-old is just fighting mechanical issue and should be able to get back to his dominant self soon. But, in the meantime, a door has opened for fantasy owners to hopefully roster the reliever next in line to get SV chances in Seattle. Keep a close eye on how the M’s handle the back end of games moving forward.

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