NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball suspended Edwin Díaz for 10 games on Monday, a day after umpire Vic Carapazza ejected him from Sunday’s 5-2 win over the Cubs for a violation of the league’s sticky stuff regulations. Díaz declined to appeal and began serving the suspension Tuesday. He is eligible to return on July 6 against the Pirates.

The suspension is routine for players who are ejected for a sticky stuff violation. In a release, MLB wrote that Díaz violated “the prohibitions on foreign substances,” without noting whether Díaz was suspended for using an illegal substance or too much of a legal one. The closer said Sunday he had made his hands sticky with nothing other than rosin, sweat and dirt, but television cameras showed black spots on his hands, and Carapazza said he believed the substance making Díaz’s hands sticky was likely illegal.

Díaz did not appear in the Mets’ clubhouse Tuesday when it was open to the media. According to a team spokesman, he will address his situation and decision not to appeal on Wednesday.

“Edwin said it’s rosin and sweat,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Now the one thing he said was it was humid, so he had to go to it a lot more than early in the year when it was cold. So maybe that had something to do with it. I believe my player, and I’ll stand by it.”

MLB has never overturned or shortened a sticky stuff suspension on appeal.

“We don’t want this hanging over the team for too long,” Mendoza said, explaining why Díaz did not appeal. “Obviously, he talked to his people. We talked to them. And we thought it was best if we just move forward, get it over with and then move on from that.”

Díaz became the third Mets pitcher to be suspended for a sticky substance violation in the last 15 months, joining Max Scherzer and Drew Smith. Both Scherzer and Smith served their suspensions in full. Eight players in total have been suspended since MLB began enforcing sticky stuff checks in 2021.

Asked why his team has three times as many sticky stuff suspensions as any other club, Mendoza responded that he and other team officials have been “firm” in policing their pitchers “since Day 1.”

“Obviously, I’m not going to get into the details of what we’re going to be doing moving forward,” Mendoza said. “But … the rules are the rules. Talking to Edwin, I’ve got his back. I truly believe what he was telling us. But we’ve been pretty firm since Day 1 with the rules.”

Without Díaz, the Mets will proceed shorthanded in the bullpen, which could force them to become creative with their entire pitching staff. Of note, starting pitchers David Peterson and Tylor Megill both have accessible Minor League options, meaning the Mets could feasibly option them at some point during Díaz’s suspension, call up relievers to tide them over, then replace those starters with Triple-A arms Christian Scott and José Buttó.

If the Mets don’t lean heavily on their bullpen in Díaz’s absence, however, they could stick with their initial plan of inserting Scott as a sixth starter.

“I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to shuffle some things here,” Mendoza said. “But we’ve just got to take it one game at a time.”

For as long as Díaz is sidelined, Mendoza will rely on several other relievers with closing experience, including Smith, Reed Garrett, Adam Ottavino and Jake Diekman. All of them have saved games this season.