PORT ST. LUCIE — Edwin Diaz was close to untouchable when he last pitched for the Mets and expects to continue at or near that level returning from his lost season.
“I think I will be the same guy,” Diaz said Monday after throwing a bullpen session on the report date for pitchers and catchers at Clover Park. “I know my body and how I have to attack the hitters and how to make pitches … and what I have to do to be successful.”
All was right in Diaz’s universe last March as he departed to represent Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic.
He was only months removed from finishing a season in which he emerged as the game’s premier reliever, earning him a record contract for a closer at five years and $102 million.
But on March 15, after recording the save in Puerto Rico’s victory over the Dominican Republic, the right-hander got caught in a wave of bodies celebrating, crumpled to the ground and needed to be carried off the field.
Diaz was diagnosed with a torn patellar tendon in his right knee and underwent surgery that would require a prolonged rehab.
Diaz’s rehab proceeded on a fast track, prompting Mets officials to consider a September cameo for him with the club, but the idea ultimately got nixed.
“I was ready, I was feeling great, but the team wasn’t playing good baseball and we couldn’t make the playoffs,” Diaz said. “So the team backed it up a little bit more and that was good for me because I got a whole year to get ready for 2024.”
Diaz was the toast of Citi Field in 2022, when he pitched to a 1.31 ERA with 32 saves and 118 strikeouts in 62 innings. Along the way, his entrance music — Blasterjaxx and Timmy Trumpet’s “Narco” — became part of his mystique.
“Look, [2022 Diaz] is a real high bar for anyone,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “2022 was a historic level of production for a major league pitcher, but I would expect Edwin, based on his health and who he is as a pitcher, his determination, to be a very good pitcher for us.”
The WBC doesn’t return until 2026, at which time Diaz (who turns 30 next month) will evaluate if the event is the fit for him.
“It’s two more years to go back there,” Diaz said. “I just want to see how I am with the team and I will ask the team first if they are OK to let me go play. If not, I played twice in the WBC, so I lived the experience twice.”
Diaz doesn’t discount the impact his injury had on the Mets’ season last year.
A team projected to compete for the NL East title sputtered to the All-Star break and became sellers at the trade deadline in part because of bullpen deficiencies.
“I think we would be better last year if I was pitching,” Diaz said. “The season was tough, with a lot of injuries, a tough season and if I went out there I think I would be able to help them win more games.”
Many projections place the Mets as a team that will just hover above .500 this season following a low-key winter by the club in trades and free agency as it looks to evaluate internal options.
But from Diaz’s perspective, the mission remains the same.
“I know all my teammates have the same expectation as me, to make the playoffs,” Diaz said. “We will be 100 percent to go every day in the games.”
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