It’s been nearly a full 24 hours since news dropped that Edwin Diaz’s season was officially over. If you look around Mets Twitter, the wound is still fresh. Outside of wanting to cancel the World Baseball Classic so no other Mets players get hurt, there are plenty of overreactions.
The most common one is the most obvious one. You know what I’m talking about — Diaz is out for the year, so now the season is over. Let’s not even try. Might as well pack it up (and pack it in) and get ready for 2024.
That is, of course, not going to happen. While losing Diaz is a tremendous gut punch, the Mets are still expected to be one helluva good team. Players echoed that in the clubhouse on Thursday, and owner Steve Cohen said the same thing on Twitter.
Every Mets fan knows this, too. It’s just the emotional angst from the injury itself that’s a killer. Diaz is more than just the game’s best closer right now. His entrances into games at Citi Field are an event. Not watching him trot in from the bullpen with “Narco” blaring through the speakers at all this year is a tough pill to swallow.
Another song that got Mets fans going was Jacob deGrom’s “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Not having either one playing (with the likely legit animations on New York’s ginormous scoreboard) really stinks.
It just hit me that 2023 will not feature either "Simple Man" or "Narco" playing at Citi Field, and that just sucks. I think back to that game last August–deGrom's Citi Field return, with Díaz closing it out–and how electric the atmosphere was for that game. I'm so sad.
— Vas Drimalitis (@vasdrimalitis) March 16, 2023
But hey, we’ve had plenty of time to get over deGrom not donning the orange and blue this year. Watching general manager Billy Eppler and the Mets go on a historic spending spree that included Justin Verlander and Kodai Senga for the rotation certainly helped.
But Diaz’s injury hurts for multiple reasons. It’s now less than two weeks to Opening Day. He’s quite literally the best closer in baseball, and his presence/performance is impossible to replace. All of those things are true. However, it’s also true that the Mets will probably be fine.
Let’s not forget that we went through something similar close to 12 months ago. DeGrom was slated to be the Mets’ 2022 Opening Day starter on April 7th. But on April 1st, a stress reaction on his scapula was discovered. That led to an initial shutdown period of four weeks, and he eventually made his season debut in August.
Remember how we all felt when that happened? Everyone was excited to have him and Max Scherzer as an elite one-two pitch. Before the season even started, those best-laid plans got completely derailed. It probably felt like the season was over at that moment, too.
Things eventually turned out OK.
The Mets are going to be okay. We didn’t think we’d be anything decent without deGrom last season.
The Mets are going to be okay. Let the regular season start before we start with the “seasons over” crap.
Ya Gotta Believe. #LGM ??
— Lauren (@CalmYourMitts) March 17, 2023
DeGrom started only 11 regular-season games. Scherzer also hit the injured list twice, with one of those occasions being at the same time deGrom was on the shelf. And New York still found a way to win 100-plus games for the first time since 1988.
Will Diaz’s presence in the bullpen be missed? Of course. And while New York may make a move to give Buck Showalter’s relief corps extra support, there are guys in the ‘pen that can do a good job in Diaz’s absence. David Robertson, who has 157 career saves and big-game experience, can fill in admirably.
Although the right-hander was a huge piece of the Mets’ plans for contention in 2023, he alone wasn’t the key to a potential World Series title. It takes a full roster of dudes to make it happen. All teams deal with injuries to impact players. The good ones rise up and still find a way to perform better than most.
The Mets did it last year. It appears as though they’re well-equipped to do it again this year. Let’s hope that’s the case.
Matt Musico can be reached at matt.musico@xlmedia.com and you can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
