With 12 saves and a brilliant 2.13 ERA in the 2022 season, New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz has been among the best relievers in baseball.
That really shouldn’t be surprising: he has been dominating for years and still has wicked stuff.
His triple-digits fastball and excellent slider guarantee a lot of strikeouts for Diaz.
In fact, no one misses bats like him in MLB.
The numbers prove it.
“MLB K/9 leaders (minimum 15 IP): 1. Edwin Díaz, 17.05. 2. Josh Hader, 15.10. 3. Devin Williams, 14.63. No one else in the league is above 14.0 K/9,” Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweeted.
MLB K/9 leaders (minimum 15 IP):
1. Edwin Díaz, 17.05
2. Josh Hader, 15.10
3. Devin Williams, 14.63No one else in the league is above 14.0 K/9.
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) June 13, 2022
No One Strikes Out More Hitters Than Diaz
Hader may be the best reliever in baseball, and Williams has been one of the most reliable pitchers of the last couple of seasons, but none of them has the kind of strikeout power that Diaz boasts.
The most amazing thing is that Diaz managed to take his strikeout prowess from elite to other-wordly this year.
While K/9 (strikeouts per nine innings) may be a useful stat, a better way to assess a pitcher’s dominance may be looking at his strikeout percentage.
After all, a hurler can give up a couple of homers and walk three hitters in an inning while getting all outs via the strikeout, and his K/9 will tell you he is elite.
On that regard, the strikeout percentage tells the story more accurately.
Diaz’s strikeout percentage over the course of his MLB career is 39.2 percent.
This year, he has taken it to 48 percent: he virtually fans almost half of the hitters he faces, which is absurdly good.
Despite an occasional hiccup here or there, Diaz is really one of MLB’s best and most impressive relievers.
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