New York Mets reliever Edwin Diaz had a rough first day back at the office on Wednesday at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie.

Over an inning pitched versus a split-squad version of the Houston Astros, the right-hander got touched up for two runs on a Michael Brantley single to lead off the fourth, a double over Dominic Smith’s head in left field in the next at-bat via Aledmys Diaz, and another RBI double from 32-year-old backstop Dustin Garneau later in the frame.

The 25-year-old also struck out Houston’s top positional prospect Kyle Tucker swinging at an absolutely nasty inside slider after getting ahead of the 23-year-old right fielder 0-2, clearly exhibiting his extremely high upside.

After the slider to strike out Tucker, Diaz’s most impressive pitch of his outing may have been the 1-1, 89 MPH outside slider he got 27-year-old Nick Tanielu to swing awkwardly at before inducing a fly out to right field on the next pitch.

Following Garneau’s run-scoring, two-out double into the left-field corner, Diaz got 29-year-old Jack Mayfield to ground out softly, ending his afternoon.

Following the Mets’ 4-2 loss, Diaz spoke to reporters (video via Anthony DiComo, MLB.com), assuring all interested parties he came away from his first spring action feeling okay with where he’s at.

“I felt good out there, a little bit anxious because it was the first time being out there in a real game and facing real batters,” Diaz said through team interpreter Alan Suriel. “Other than that I felt really good.”

Diaz admittedly left a fastball over the plate to Diaz — an issue throughout 2019, as evidenced by his 10.1% barrel rate (bottom eight percent of the league, per Statcast) — and tipped his cap to Garneau for getting out in front of the 98 MPH inside offering he ripped, but this was not the first impression any interested parties had in mind for 2020.

After a horrific debut season in Queens last year, Edwin Diaz — for all his elite talents (97.4 MPH average fastball velocity and 39% strikeout rate in 2019, both ranked in 99th percentile league-wide) — needs a bounce-back campaign in the most urgent way possible this season.

Wednesday’s outing was the first step in that process. Let’s hope there’s progress ahead.