Diaz bone spur condition hasn’t caused issues

Six and a half years later, Edwin Diaz stands as the top find of his amateur draft subclass, the third round of 2012. There isn’t a close second.

Which makes it all the more ironic that, of the 33 players popped in that round, Diaz drew the smallest signing bonus thanks to a medical concern that has yet to impact him. But it surely will show up on his medical records as the Mets review them in the trade discussions that will likely end with Diaz and Robinson Cano moving from Seattle to Queens.

According to Noel Sevilla, the scout who recommended and signed Diaz, the two sides had agreed on the slot figure of $485,000 (the Puerto Rico native Diaz was the 98th player selected overall) before the righthander’s physical examination revealed a bone spur in his right elbow. The bonus consequently dropped to $300,000. Diaz’s agent, Edwin Rodriguez, confirmed this turn of events.

The bone spur has never bothered Diaz, Rodriguez said, and the 24-year-old has never been placed on the disabled list in the majors.

“It can always present itself as a problem at any point,” Dr. Umer Dasti, a sports medicine orthopedic surgeon at Ridgewood Orthopedic Group in New Jersey, said Saturday in a telephone interview. “The fact that it hasn’t presented itself is a good sign.”

A bone spur results from the stress a pitcher places on his throwing elbow and can form irritation or inflammation of the joint. If it causes enough discomfort, it will be surgically removed. Mets fans might recall that both Steven Matz and Noah Syndergaard dealt with bone spurs during the 2016 season. Matz underwent a procedure at the end of that season to remove his spur, while Syndergaard never had his spur removed.

The surgery sidelines a pitcher for three months, although pitchers typically try to pitch through the discomfort and undergo the surgery after the season. Dasti said that a bone spur painful enough to prematurely end a pitcher’s season is “uncommon.”