For the past two seasons, Mets fans have felt their stomach drop almost every time Edwin Diaz stepped on the mound, and for good reason might I add. There’s no denying that Diaz didn’t live up to the hype when he first came to New York, but there is reason for fans to start believing in him now. 

Diaz’s First Season in New York 

Backtracking to 2019, when Diaz made his first appearance on the Mets, he started out the season pretty solid with 13 saves through April and May, with two blown saves, only one of which resulted in a loss. Looking back at the season as a whole, he had seven blown saves – which is not a great number don’t get me wrong – but let’s dive deeper into what got him to that point.

The 2019 season was rough for a lot of pitchers, especially ones that relied on their off-speed pitches. Several pitchers spoke up about how the feeling of the ball was different, even Noah Syndergaard explained that the ball felt like an “ice cube” that season.

The MLB changed the seams on the ball making it tougher for pitchers like Diaz, who relies heavily on his slider, to get the same grip on his pitches. Having to make adjustments on the fly is very difficult for any baseball player to do midseason, rather than during the break. 

His slider started breaking in a way that it would hang longer and the batters knew exactly what was coming. 

An essential part of an athlete’s career is having a coach who guides the player and helps them get their mojo back when they’re struggling. This may not seem like a big deal, but remember when the Mets made Phil Reagan their pitching coach two months into the season? I definitely do.

It can take a little while for a player to trust their coach enough to make quick changes as is. Yet Diaz went from having Mel Stottlemyre as his pitching coach for the first three seasons of his career with the Mariners, to having two different coaches in the span of a few months on the Mets. 

Adding into the mix a manager like Mickey Callaway, who was less than tactful in the way that he handled the media, and Diaz was left on an island in 2019. 

The young All-Star really only has two pitches in his repertoire and when his slider was failing him, with a coach he barely knew, and a staff that essentially hung him out to dry, what did they expect to happen?

Anyone could do poorly in that scenario. It wasn’t as simple as him losing his talent, it never was. 

High Hopes Fall Quickly in 2020 

After an extended offseason due to the pandemic, Diaz still had plenty of doubters going into his second campaign with the Mets. Granted the right-hander did have a rocky start with a blown save in his second outing. Still, that loss came after pitching back-to-back days at the beginning of an already unusual season. 

All told, Diaz had six saves and four blown saves in 2020. Yet the Mets rarely gave the pitcher a save opportunity in the first place.

Dellin Betances and Jeurys Familia struggled greatly in the seventh and eighth innings, and for some reason, Diaz was the one they chose to minimize the damage. In theory it makes sense to turn to a great strikeout pitcher like Diaz to clean up the mess of other struggling relievers, but in practice this was not a wise decision. 

Diaz has shown to be more comfortable when entering games with a clean inning, instead of putting him in high-pressure situations where there are runners already in scoring position. This wasn’t utilizing him in the way that’s most effective, which made his statistics and perception amongst the fan base suffer as well. 

The amount of pressure that closers have is astronomically higher than a starting pitcher, and bad outings have a much greater effect on the mentality it takes to have a successful performance on the mound. 

Starters are usually put in with the idea that they’ll hopefully last until at least the fifth inning, and if they have one bad inning, there’s still time to bounce back and regain their confidence. 

For a closer, they have one shot to do their job, and if they blow it, their confidence often goes with it, especially with a young player like Diaz. 

Looking at the saves that Diaz blew, two of them were because Betances and Wilson had already loaded the bases and the Mets fielding was atrocious in 2020. 

The Mets management painfully mishandled the situations that they used Diaz in and the result was a closer who only converted 60% of his save opportunities, despite pitching to a 1.75 ERA with batters whiffing 48% of the time when the league average is 24.9%. 

Pitchers don’t have control of the way that they’re utilized and when it’s a team like the Mets who don’t have enough reliable bullpen arms, players like Diaz are the ones who take the hit. 

Don’t Sleep on Edwin Diaz in 2021 

Hopefully the Mets create a new atmosphere in 2021 which could help Diaz have his best season yet with the Mets. Between being paired alongside a few new arms such as Trevor May, having a better coaching staff and more information with analytics, Diaz should be able to do his job without the constant worry that the bullpen will blow up the game before he steps on the mound.

At the end of the day, while it is a professional athlete’s job to perform to their best ability, they are still human. It is crucial to anyone’s success that they are put in the best position to succeed and being so hard on a player like Diaz, considering the circumstances, isn’t fair to him.

Diaz could be one of those players that drown in New York and end up tanking again in 2021, but I don’t see it being very likely. His good outings last season showed that he has the potential to still be an All-Star. It’s now about giving him the support and resources to be able to dominate as a lockdown closer again.