Mets Closer Ejected / Manager: "Shrug"

And Also: Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth by Natalie Haynes was an interesting collection of discussions about Greek goddesses. The chapters were overall a good length. Hayes wrote many books about Ancient Greece. The discussions are not comprehensive. She talks about multiple sculptures and such without showing most of them. This is somewhat annoying.

The Mets/Cubs game Sunday night was on ESPN. I am not a big fan of the television games not involving Gary, Keith, and Ron. 

So, I only checked in from time to time. I saw they were up 5-2 in the 9th and suddenly Edwin Diaz, the closer, was ejected. Without throwing a pitch. Diaz struggled coming back from a year out because of an injury. However, after a stint on the injured list, he has come back strong. 

Turns out he was ejected for sticky stuff on his hands. Such an ejection means a ten-game suspension. It is therefore unfortunate that the rules are so hazy (two baseball analysts, including the former pitcher David Cone, said it's hard to tell if he truly violated the rules).

One account noted:

But this one quickly became anything but routine. Carapazza lingered by Díaz, checking his hat, belt and glove. Although Carapazza found nothing amiss in any of those places, he lingered on the pitcher’s right hand, checking it multiple times while home-plate umpire Alex Tosi watched.

The umpire said his hands were too sticky. David Cone argued there was a way for them to be as sticky without using forbidden substances. The whole thing is weird. This is not a surprise check. Diaz is checked regularly. Why would he risk a ten-day suspension? 

Diaz pushed back but did not ask if he could wash his hands (which is sometimes allowed). He was resigned in the postgame interview [which he did in English, his English skills improving]:

“As soon as they saw me, they were trying to throw me out of the game,” Díaz said. “I understood. That’s their job. That’s part of the game.”

I checked the manager interview on the postgame SNY broadcast. Carlos Mendoza was rather blase about the whole thing. Oh well. They said they broke the rules. What can you do? Did he think Diaz broke the rules or risked it enough that he didn't want to push back? It seemed a tad curious.

“I never check hands, so it’s hard for me to tell if it was too much because that’s not my job,” Mendoza said. “But they thought it was too much and that’s what Vic decided to do.”

This is the third Mets pitcher (Scherzer and Drew Smith, who got two outs tonight, another pitcher got the third) suspended for this reason. Yes, the other two were last season, when he wasn't here. Still, it's not the first time. 

I think ultimately Mendoza has the responsibility -- especially with good and decent teams coming in (Yankees included) -- to make sure his players follow the rules. More so when the result of a breach is a 10-day suspension, which includes the inability to simply replace the person on the roster. 

There is some hedging but the general sentiment seems to be that they are going to accept the suspension. So, they are not going to protest. I doubt the league would overturn if they did. It's hard to get much more than a reduction of a suspension. I believe this one is a fixed amount. 

The Mets won the game. They will just have to make due for ten days though it's annoying since they are in a groove. Diaz being out (and/or out of sorts) was a major part of their swoon before the recent good stretch. 

If this could have been avoided with better in-house best practices, it is a bad thing. The team is supposed to be getting past bad habits. The whole thing is a bit weird. Oh well.