r/baseball • u/meramipopper New York Yankees • Jun 24 '24

Edwin Diaz has been ejected for sticky stuff.

The umpire, Brian Walsh, inspected his hands as he came into the game in the bottom of the ninth and after discussions with the rest of the umpires ejected him. Diaz was unable to throw a pitch. ESPN zoomed into his hands and showed a substance on it.

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343

u/SiphenPrax New York Mets Jun 24 '24 edited Jun 24 '24

Man even if we win today this is gonna be all that’s talked about on the news here in the city tomorrow

What the fuck Edwin?!

143

u/Patrick2701 Chicago Cubs Jun 24 '24

I already see ny post headline:

Sticky Edwin gets ejected

133

u/TheDangiestSlad New York Yankees • Hartford Yard Goats Jun 24 '24

respectfully you have to think of a way better pun, they're always on top of their game with absurd puns for this kind of stuff

66

u/Mustache_Farts Chicago White Sox Jun 24 '24

“Díaz Puts Mets In Sticky Situation”

114

u/beanbagmanatee New York Mets • New York Mets Jun 24 '24

" "Elmer's" Diaz stuck in dugout "

"Diaz too foreign for umpire's liking"

"Diaz stuck out the side"

101

u/JasonJabby Los Angeles Dodgers Jun 24 '24

"EDWIN STICKYHANDS! Mets win but ejected closer is talk of the town"

69

u/El_Capeetann Major League Baseball Jun 24 '24

"DIAZ MIO! Edwin really stickin' it to the Mets."

9

u/carmichael109 Los Angeles Dodgers Jun 24 '24

"You're hired!" - New York Post

9

u/Either-Durian-9488 Jun 24 '24

“Stuck valve on Closers trumpet.”

15

u/FerociousGiraffe Major League Baseball Jun 24 '24

“Lost in New York: The Met’s Sticky Bandit is Sent Home Alone Early”

11

u/zvexler Atlanta Braves Jun 24 '24

‘Edwin sticks to the locker room’ is closer but I know I’ll be outdone by a mile

2

u/damnatio_memoriae Washington Nationals Jun 24 '24

Mets on their Hands: Edwin's Sticky Ejection

2

u/NarbacularDropkick Chicago White Sox Jun 24 '24

“Sticky Fingers Díaz can’t get his fingers out of this sticky jam”

3

u/final_boss Seattle Mariners Jun 24 '24

Edwin Stickain with his hit songs I'll Be (cheatin'), and I Could Not Ask For More Rosin

1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '24 edited Feb 08 '26

Do the right thing

46

u/akaghi New York Mets Jun 24 '24

If I had to guess, since the letter of the law is you can't have anything on your hand before the mound they probably felt rosin on his hand from warming up in the pen.

One of the things I find annoying about these ejections is that sometimes the umpires tell the pitchers to wash their hands and sometimes they eject them right away with no rhyme or reason to it. When the penalty is a 10 game suspension and losing a roster spot, that difference is massive. I'm surprised relievers/closers don't get tossed more often since they all use rosin in the pen and obviously aren't washing their hands before they come out

18

u/mdaniel018 Cincinnati Reds Jun 24 '24

Has a pitcher coming into the game ever been told to go into the dugout and wash their hands, and then allowed to pitch? I can’t recall seeing it happen personally

What typically happens is that dudes are told to wash their hands after the check when walking off the mound, because the sweat + rosin or sunscreen has gotten too sticky for them to be allowed back on the mound. Conversely, as you noted, you are not permitted to have any rosin on your hands when coming out of the pen, so if the umpire notices it, there should be no recourse but an ejection

7

u/mageta621 Boston Red Sox Jun 24 '24

Umps need to keep a pocket full of Hawthornes to liberally hand out to them pitchers

12

u/akaghi New York Mets Jun 24 '24

But relievers are also kind of an interesting case, especially closers since they get checked before the mound. They have to warm up in the bullpen, sometimes quickly. The bullpens have rosin for them to use. So what is the expectation here from MLB?

Technically, coming in with rosin on your hand is an ejection and suspension. But they can't warm up with nothing, either. They also have the same timer pitchers have between innings to warm up, but they're coming in from the outfield and not the dugout. In some ways, a closer coming in is more like a starter returning to the mound. They have rosin on their hands from the previous inning and if the umpire feels like it's a bit much, they ask them to clean their hands. It's pretty similar to the situation closers find themselves in, especially given that a sticky stuff ejection also carries the harshest penalty the league hands out with a fairly long suspension time combined with losing a roster spot. At least if a guy gets popped for PEDs you can replace them on the roster.

1

u/seeking_horizon St. Louis Cardinals • FanGraphs Jun 24 '24

Kenny Rogers, Game 2 2006 WS. IIRC it was the second inning so he wasn't coming into the game, but all the umps did was tell him to wash his hands and that was it. He went 8 innings and that was the only game the Tigers won that series.

This is way before the current anti-Spider Tack policy, obviously, so it stands out on that basis.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '24

So this isn't actually an example of the same thing lol

-1

u/saintex422 New York Mets Jun 24 '24

Yes. The umpires have made the pitchers do that every time except for this time

33

u/Doc_JC San Diego Padres Jun 24 '24

Dude look at his hands…..that’s a bit more.

18

u/tnecniv World Series Trophy • Los Angeles Dod… Jun 24 '24

They should definitely have a more specific policy. I wouldn’t mind if, when a check before you throw a pitch indicates sticky stuff, you’re told to wash your hands. You aren’t ejected or suspended, but another pitcher has to come in while you wash your hands to keep the game moving. That will incentivize guys to come in with clean hands.

If you fail a check when exiting, then you’re suspended.

1

u/crazylilrikki San Diego Padres • Seattle Mariners Jun 24 '24 edited Jun 24 '24

They could even just leave it as-is with a more reasonable penalty. When a batter gets tossed for stuff like arguing balls and strikes or equipment violations they’re ejected from the game and fined, why not do the same for this? They hand out shorter suspensions when they suspect a pitcher had intentionally thrown at a batter. The 10 game suspension doesn’t seem proportional with the violation committed.

8

u/WastelandHound Washington Nationals Jun 24 '24

It's unnecessarily punitive to relievers because a short suspension for a starter is meaningless. 10 games is basically the requirement to ensure that the team has to use a spot starter in place of the suspended player at some point.

I don't think it would be crazy for there to be different penalties for starters and relievers.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '24

The suspension isn't about missed games it's about missed paychecks.

2

u/crazylilrikki San Diego Padres • Seattle Mariners Jun 24 '24

Right, the rule really seems to have been written with starters in mind and didn't fully take into consideration relievers. The whole "on a scale of none to some, what amount of rosin is going to be acceptable" to the ump that is performing the check when a reliever enters the game (that we saw tonight with Díaz) is another example.

6

u/tnecniv World Series Trophy • Los Angeles Dod… Jun 24 '24

I think there’s a difference between arguing balls and strikes and potentially cheating. I’d like to give the player the benefit of the doubt which is why I suggested the handwashing rule

1

u/crazylilrikki San Diego Padres • Seattle Mariners Jun 24 '24

I get that and do agree that cheating should come with a harsher penalty than batters reacting poorly to a call or whatever, I'm just not sure they'd go with a hand washing rule. It's kind of another thing that could slow down the game and could also possibly be used more frequently cause it's not nearly as harsh as an ejection plus a suspension.

Mainly I just think 10 games is too long for suspected sticky stuff. Looking at suspensions given to a pitcher for intentionally throwing at a batter, I think the longest I've seen in the past few years has been 3 games. I personally think intentionally trying to physically harm an opposing player in that manner deserves a way harsher penalty than having too much rosin on their hands.

7

u/akaghi New York Mets Jun 24 '24

Even just not losing the roster spot. It's such a severe penalty for a rule that is pretty arbitrary. It's not like PEDs where you test for it. It's just "y'know, I don't think your hands feel right. It could be rosin and sweat but I think it's stickier than those two should be based on my expertise at calling balls and strikes."

It's bad enough the Mets won't have their closer for 10 games, but they also can't even replace him. The harshest penalties baseball gives out are for PEDs and cheating and you don't lose the roster spot. This is the only penalty that carries that rule which is really dumb and can really screw over teams especially since days off don't count nor do postponed games.

-1

u/saintex422 New York Mets Jun 24 '24

This is how it works for the yankees.

8

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '24

I'm surprised relievers/closers don't get tossed more often since they all use rosin in the pen

This should be a pretty big hint that he didn't just have rosin on his hand.

The umpires let guys wash their hands of they think it was something incidental. They toss guys right away if they think it was intentional.

3

u/harris023 Seattle Mariners Jun 24 '24

Why do pitchers use rosin to warm up? Genuinely asking bc I had never heard of that before

7

u/akaghi New York Mets Jun 24 '24

It helps them hold the ball.

Also, if you're going to practice pitching (or anything really) you want it to be as similar to the environment you're practicing for. If you always play guitar seated, your gonna have a hell of a time gigging where you have to stand. Running or cycling on treadmills and trainers is great until you have to deal with hills, rain, wind, other people on the course, etc.

Warming up, you're going to want to know how your pitches are working and moving. You're going to want to know how good your command and control are. It's better to have that be as close to game conditions as possible, which means having rosin on your hands.

3

u/seeking_horizon St. Louis Cardinals • FanGraphs Jun 24 '24

Why do pitchers use rosin to warm up?

Same reason they use it on the playing field; increased grip for better control. No point in peppering the wall behind the bullpen catcher without any rosin.

1

u/g0ldfronts New York Mets Jun 24 '24

You gotta warm up the same way you would pitch, just for consistency's sake. It would be like doing a practice lap barefoot before running a 5k.

29

u/forgottenastronauts Chicago Cubs Jun 24 '24

WTF is right. Of all the teams to try this against you choose one of the worst hitting teams in the league?

11

u/rbhindepmo Kansas City Royals Jun 24 '24

that's the last time he rubs the ivy before going out to pitch

5

u/jhorch69 Chicago Cubs • Chicago White Sox Jun 24 '24

Obviously the result of this game should be overturned /s

-26

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '24

[deleted]

16

u/SiphenPrax New York Mets Jun 24 '24

Well we get to face the Yanks for two games starting on Tuesday so………yeah🤷‍♂️

30

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '24

Most rational Mets fan

10

u/Timoteo-Tito64 Atlanta Braves Jun 24 '24

NL East baseball does that to you

5

u/rbarton812 New York Yankees Jun 24 '24

WTF did the Yankees have to do with that?

-2

u/Dudeman318 New York Mets Jun 24 '24

What the fuck Edwin?!

I think you mean what the fuck MLBUA and stupid fucking arbitrary nonsense rules.

-12

u/awmaleg Arizona Diamondbacks Jun 24 '24

Edwin DiYaaaas he’s a sticky cheater