Coming back from injury, Edwin Diaz confident Mets will get 'same guy' as 2022

With reporters huddled around him at the Mets’ spring training facility in Port St. Lucie, Edwin Diaz had one thing to say when asked what was new with the closer.

“Finally back,” he said.

Diaz, who was of course referring to being back with the team for a new season after suffering a season-ending injury last year at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) before the season even started, is healthy once again and eager to get back to work and reclaim his spot as the best closer in baseball.

“We’re here and ready to go,” said Diaz, who will begin throwing to live hitters next week once the Mets have their full squad present for spring training (their first full squad workout is next Monday).

For now, it’s just nice to see a fully healthy Diaz back in the building after the gruesome scenes of tearing the patellar tendon in his right knee following a save for Team Puerto Rico at last year’s WBC.

Since then, the 29-year-old has had nearly a full year of rehab and the Mets will likely ease him back into action this spring, something that is both common and preferred by Diaz even in a season where he isn’t coming off injury.

“Our plan is to go back and do our normal spring training,” Diaz said. “So as soon as the exhibition games start, we have my own routine and the day I feel good to pitch in the game, they will let me go and pitch.”

That may not be for a little bit, though, as the right-hander said he likes to work in the backfield at the start of spring training because he likes to “warm up” and “control” his pitches.

“I want to control my slider the way I want, I want to command my fastball the way I want to and in the backfield I can do that a lot because here in the games if you get 10 pitches or three outs on three pitches you didn’t work a lot so I prefer to go in the backfield, throw 25-to-30 pitches and when I’m ready to go pitch in the game, I’m ready to go,” Diaz said.

It will come in due time, but sooner rather than later the All-Star closer will be back pitching for the Mets, hopefully slamming the door at the end of games and recording saves just like he did better than anyone in 2022.

Perhaps that’s too much to ask of a guy coming off major injury and who hasn’t pitched in over a year. After all, he finished with a 1.31 ERA (0.84 WHIP) in 62 innings that season with 32 saves and 118 strikeouts. However, Diaz doesn’t think so.

“I think we will get the same guy [as 2022],” he said. “I know my body, I know how I have to attack the hitters. I think I have good knowledge of what I have to do to be successful.”

In fact, that first time that he walks out of the bullpen at Citi Field to Timmy Trumpets’ “Narco” – after fans were robbed of it for a full year last season – it will surely be a spectacle.

“I think it’ll be crazy,” Diaz said. “The fans have been waiting for that moment, you know the trumpets, they like all of that. When I come out to pitch, I can’t wait to see the moment and to feel it.”

Asked if he’ll be able to contain himself in that moment, the always focused Diaz said absolutely. Whether the fans will be able to is a different story.

“I will know how to control my emotions,” he said. “I don’t know if the fans will, I think they will love to hear ‘Narco’, but for me I will control my emotions and I will do my job.”

And as if there was any doubt, Diaz confirmed that he is, in fact, sticking with the same walkout song that gained so much notoriety – and even thievery – two seasons ago.

“Yeah, 100 percent. If I change it from ‘Narco’ I think I would get in trouble with the fans. So we’ll keep using ‘Narco’,” he said.

As for where he’s at currently in the season compared to a normal season, Diaz said pitching-wise he’s about the same.

“We got some progress to make in my rehab, but pitching-wise I feel ready to go right now,” he said. “Physically, overall, I’m 100 percent ready. We just started running and doing other stuff. I think we will be ready for the season.”

Last season, at the time of the injury, there was talk of a potential late-season return for the closer if everything went well and New York was still in it. That was true, Diaz confirmed, and he was ready if that were what the team decided to do.

Of course, the Mets were nowhere near contention at season’s end in 2023 after they decided to be sellers at the trade deadline and blow up their roster for desperately needed prospects to bolster up their farm system.

In the end, that was probably the best move in the long-run – both for the team and Diaz and his health.

“I was ready,” he said about making a return last year. “I was feeling great, but the team wasn’t playing good baseball and we couldn’t make the playoffs so we backed off a little bit more and that was good for me, you know, I got a whole year to get ready and be ready for 2024.”

It’s hard not to think ‘what-if’ about the 2023 season had Diaz not gotten injured, especially for New York who had such high expectations going into the season.

This season doesn’t have quite as high of hopes that last season did, at least outside of the Mets’ clubhouse and locker rooms. However, internally, the Amazins believe they have the makings of a playoff roster that will surprise a lot of people.

Getting their closer back certainly helps with that.

“We got a really good team, you know, I think he got about the same team as last year. They made some trades, I think those trades were good and I feel happy about our team. I think we got a chance to make the playoffs,” Diaz said.

He continued: “As a player we got high expectations every time. I know all my teammates have the same expectations as me – to make the playoffs – and we will go 100 percent every day in the games.”