DEFERRALS, LOOPHOLES, AND THE $6.5M OPTION THAT LEFT NEW YORK REELING
LOS ANGELES, CA—The ink has dried on Edwin Díaz’s record-breaking three-year, $69 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but it’s the “fine print” surfaced today that has the baseball world calling this a masterclass in front-office ruthlessness. While the headline $23M AAV makes Díaz the highest-paid reliever in history, the structural “loopholes” and a shockingly team-friendly option have left the New York Mets organization reportedly “furious” and exposed.
The Dodgers didn’t just outbid the Mets; they out-engineered them, using the very deferral tactics that have made Andrew Friedman the “Goliath” of the winter.
THE ANATOMY OF THE “STEAL”
| Contract Layer | The Detail | The “Ruthless” Advantage |
| The Deferrals | $13.5M Total. $4.5M is deferred annually from 2026-2028, payable through 2047. | Reduces Díaz’s Luxury Tax hit (CBT) to just $21.1M, allowing LA to keep spending while the Mets felt “priced out.” |
| The 2029 Loophole | Conditional $6.5M Team Option. No buyout included. | The “Injury Trap”: The option triggers only if Díaz spends a specific amount of time on the IL in 2028. LA gets an elite arm for pennies if he’s rehabbing; if he’s healthy and elite, they simply let him walk or renegotiate. |
| Performance “Escalators” | Up to $2.5M in bonuses for 2029. | These only kick in if Díaz finishes 55 games—a milestone he has reached only once in his career. It’s “paper money” that looks good but is unlikely to be paid. |
| The Upfront Cash | $9M Signing Bonus. | Payable Feb 1, 2026. This immediate liquidity is what reportedly swayed Díaz to pivot away from the Mets’ longer-term offers. |
METS EXPOSED: WHY THE BIDDING WAR FAILED
Reports indicate the Mets offered three years at $66 million—only $3M less than LA—but their insistence on larger deferrals over 15 years and their refusal to match the $9M upfront bonus left them in the dust.
Internal tension in Queens has reached a boiling point. Sources suggest Díaz was “upset” by the Mets’ decision to sign Devin Williams to a $51M deal without consulting him, viewing it as a lack of confidence. The Dodgers leveraged this emotional rift, using Díaz’s brother, Alexis Díaz, to convince the closer that Los Angeles was a “winning organization” that would treat him like a priority, not an insurance policy.
THE “GOLIATH” STRIKES AGAIN
With this signing, the Dodgers’ total deferred obligations have skyrocketed to $1.06 billion. By weaponizing future debt to secure the league’s most elite “Narco” entrance, Los Angeles has effectively shortened the game for the next three years while leaving their biggest big-market rival looking “embarrassed and unprepared.”
The Dodgers now head into 2026 with a Díaz-Tanner Scott 1-2 punch that rivals any in history, while the Mets are left to explain to a heartbroken fan base how $3 million and a “conditional loophole” cost them their soul.
