Few pitchers in baseball may be as grateful for the calendar turning on the baseball season than Mets right-hander Edwin Diaz. Coming off a year in which he averaged 2.3 HR/9 and posted a 5.59 ERA and -0.6 bWAR, the 26-year old closer will get his shot at redemption in the coming months, and has taken measures both physical and mental to ensure a return to form.

Diaz returned to his old stomping grounds in Puerto Rico, reverting to the training routine he followed two offseasons ago before his first full season with the Seattle Mariners:

“I started throwing early again this year like I did in 2017,’’ Diaz told Kevin Kernan of the New York Post. “I went back to that formula. I feel 100 percent ready for the season.’’

“I’m much stronger than I was last year,” he added. “I did a lot of work running on the beach. I have a great trainer and I’m in much better shape.’’

While staying healthy will certainly be a priority for Diaz – who at times appeared to be battling bone spurs in his pitching elbow -finding a psychological niche will also be essential in bouncing back. Between the career-high seven blown saves and 6.75 ERA across the last two months of the season while the Mets were neck-deep in a playoff race, one can imagine just how easily he may have fallen into a toxic headspace.

Perhaps for that reason, Diaz reached out to one-time Met pitcher and first-ballot Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez for some pointers. Beyond exchanging video footage and working to correct mechanics or establish a better release point, Diaz also took away some important benchmarks to pitching fearlessly:

“Pedro told me to pitch inside more… he told me to fight with everybody. ‘Don’t be scared of anybody,'” Diaz relayed. “Every time he talked to me I paid attention to everything he said because he knows so much about pitching. The things he told me I started to put to work in my throwing sessions and I started getting better every time.’’

All told, Diaz certainly could have benefited from this information earlier in 2019, as he only threw 15.5 percent of his pitches to right-handers inside – a near-five percent dropoff from his career figures, and furthermore one that may explain why righties managed to hit .299/.358/.569 in 2019 (lefties, meanwhile, batted just .193/.294/.398).

Veteran teammate Robinson Cano, whom the Mets acquired alongside Diaz in a trade last offseason, expressed his support for Diaz, saying, “I talked to Edwin last year and I said, ‘You know what? Take this as a good example…’ That tells you to find somebody, because you always need somebody during the season. If you’re going to struggle, you don’t get to struggle alone.”

“You need a person you can call also [and say], ‘I don’t feel my arm coming as strong as it used to.’ ” You need that person who will be there for you and tell you what you’re doing [well] and what you’re doing wrong.’’

Regarding learning to confront his nerves ahead of a crucial 2020 season, Diaz told Kernan, “My head is good. It’s going to be different this year. It’s going to be much better. I love New York. It’s the Big Apple and this year I am ready. I am so excited for the season.’’