For Mets' Edwin Diaz, moving to bullpen wound up being a very good thing
Mets pitcher Edwin Díaz reacts after striking out the Rockies' Charlie Blackmon to end a game on Wednesday in Denver. Credit: AP/David Zalubowski
SEATTLE — When initially presented the idea of a career-altering — and ultimately career-making — transition to the bullpen nearly a decade ago, Edwin Diaz hesitated.
He had been a starting pitcher in the minor leagues. Starters love being starters. In May 2016, the Mariners decided they wanted him to be a reliever. Diaz didn’t love the idea until Seattle’s decision-makers made it clear that such a switch would put him on a fast track to the majors.
That episode, which Diaz fondly recalled Friday afternoon, triggered a series of events that have helped make him what he is today: a Mets mainstay and the recipient of the largest reliever contract ever, proud of his body of work on the occasion of his first return to Seattle since the late 2018 blockbuster trade that sent him to Queens.
“It feels good to be back,” Diaz said before the Mets’ series opener with the Mariners. “I got really good memories here.”
In broad strokes, Diaz’s time with the Mets has echoed his early career with the Mariners: utter dominance (2018 in Seattle and 2022 in New York) with fits of failure sometimes deep enough to temporarily cost him his role as closer mixed in (2017 in Seattle and 2019/2021/2024 in New York).
It’s worth noting, though, that since Diaz returned from the injured list in mid-June, he has returned to top form, too: 1.38 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, 16 strikeouts in 13 innings. What has impressed first-year Mets manager Carlos Mendoza most has been “the consistency of his personality.”
“He’s the same guy,” Mendoza said. “Especially when it was hard for him, he was the same guy. He wanted to be out there . . . That’s the biggest thing, his ability to move on from a tough outing or a tough stretch.”
How would Diaz summarize his Mets career for Mariners fans who haven’t followed him closely on the other coast in the other league?
“My time with the Mets didn’t start the way I wanted it to,” he said. “I came in the trade and I didn’t perform the way I wanted to, but after that year, I went home and realized I have to work harder. After that season, everything went fine. I’ve been able to perform the way I want to in New York. If they go see numbers and everything, they can see I’ve been able to do my work.”
That trade came, of course, after Diaz’s banner 2018.
A walk down memory lane: The Brodie Van Wagenen-led Mets acquired Diaz and Robinson Cano for a package of five players, headlined by then-top prospect Jarred Kelenic. The others were Jay Bruce, Anthony Swarzak, Justin Dunn and Gerson Bautista.
Diaz and Kelenic (now with Atlanta) are the only ones still in the majors.
Diaz still speaks with Cano weekly, he said.
“I said to him, ‘Wherever you go, if I go with you, I will be fine,’ ” Diaz recalled of learning about the trade. “I got lucky I got traded with him to New York.”
These days, the Mariners have another young, hard-throwing, game-saving strikeout machine in Andres Munoz, who last month became an All-Star for the first time.
Diaz and Munoz met during Seattle’s 2022 trip to Citi Field, introduced by Mariners bullpen catcher Fleming Baez, who took Diaz under his wing way back when. Munoz, aspiring closer, wanted to meet Diaz, established closer, so Baez made it happen.
“He asked me how I prepare for the game, how to handle when things are not going good for you,” Diaz said. “He’s doing great.”
Notes & quotes: Starling Marte will join Double-A Binghamton to continue his rehab assignment Sunday, the latest indication he is nearing a return from a right knee bone bruise that has cost him a month and a half. “Hopefully it’s at some point during the homestand,” Mendoza said. The Mets are in New York for nine games beginning Tuesday . . . Christian Scott (right elbow sprain) has not resumed throwing. He is symptom-free, according to Mendoza, but the Mets are taking time to rebuild strength before he starts baseball activity . . . The Mets did not activate Reed Garrett, but he did physically return to the team. They plan to bring him back from the IL in the next day or two, as necessitated by bullpen-related needs.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
