Should You Pick Up Edwin Diaz in Fantasy Baseball?

Sports Illustrated fantasy baseball analysts Shawn Childs and Ben Heisler weigh in on Diaz

After an abysmal end to the 2019 season, the Mets relief pitcher’s fantasy baseball draft stock is sinking. Can he rebound in 2020? Sports Illustrated’s fantasy baseball analysts weigh in.

After a promising season in 2018, fantasy baseball players that drafted Edwin Diaz in 2019 were burned…badly. In his final 38 appearances, the Mets relief pitcher converted just 12 of 17 had a 7.79 ERA in 32.1 innings and gave up 10 home runs. Heading into the 2020 fantasy baseball season, Diaz has an Average Draft Position of 111th overall and is the 11th relic pitcher coming off draft boards.Should fantasy baseball managers look to draft Diaz in 2020? Sports Illustrated fantasy baseball analysts Shawn Childs and Ben Heisler weigh in.

Read the transcript from their conversation:

Corey Parson: As we push closer and closer to hopefully having Major League Baseball this season. Maybe that means our fantasy baseball owners get to enjoy their hobby. Now to talk some New York Mets are SI's fantasy and gambling analysts Ben Heisler and Shawn Childs. Ben, Edwin Diaz for the New York Mets: what do you think about him this season?

Ben Heisler: Well, right now he's number 11 relief pitcher coming off the board. His average draft position is 114. And there's two things that I think of when I hear the name Edwin Diaz. The first is the Martin Lawrence movie Blue Streak, where he keeps going. "Diaz, is it? Diaz?" And the second thing is we're talking about a complete meltdown in 2019 from one of the great closer seasons just a season ago in Seattle before he got traded to the Mets. The one thing to look out for, even though Diaz pitched an ERA almost near six, is his strikeout rate went up in 2019 compared to 2018. And also we're talking about somebody who had the same velocity on his fastball. So those two things I'm not worried about. I think this is an ideal time for Diaz to have a bounce back here in New York.

Corey Parson: Shawn, what are we doing? Draft or Pass? 

Shawn Childs: We're drafting Diaz. You know, you have to look back two years ago, 57 saves, ERA under two. Just exceptional. Last year, he started fine in the first two months of the season. But then he really, really struggled. And even after July, he allowed eight home runs in the last 18.2 Innings for a 7.23 ERA. His walk rate went up from 2.1 to 3.4. Like you mentioned, his fastball stayed the same, but he lost his slider. He gave up six home runs off a slider, and they hit almost .300 against it. In the year before, it was 1.21. So the main thing for him is just he lost a feel for a slider, lost a little bit of confidence, but he's kind of going to be a wise guy play because he has the talent to be electric. High upside. And he really needs it to clean up the ninth inning for the mess to be competitive this year. So I'm definitely a guy that's going to try to target him this year. But he has been moving up in the high stakes market just a little bit since the beginning of the dress season.