Imagine hearing “Narco” by Timmy Trumpet start to fill the Citi Field stadium in the top of the ninth inning, you look at the doors of the bullpen and see one of the best closers in the league run out to close out the game for the New York Mets. Thats right folks, Edwin Díaz is back.
Back at the Mets spring training complex, Díaz had no issues with throwing his bullpen session on Monday. Pitchers and catchers are slowly getting back into the swing of things down in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The Mets will have their firsts spring training game on Saturday, Feb. 24 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
“Finally back,” Díaz said. “We are here and ready to go.”
Díaz was sidelined for the entire 2023 season, after he tore the patellar tendon in his right knee while celebrating on the field for Team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic in March of last year. He appears to be be fully recovered and ready to resume his role as the Mets’ closer.
“He can’t wait to get going,” Mets Manager Carlos Mendoza said in Monday. “I spoke with him a couple of weeks ago. Fully healthy, he’s going through his offseason routines and preparation. He’s excited”
“That’s another guy that has been going back and forth, home and Puerto Rico and New York, getting checked out,” explained Mendoza on Díaz’s recovery. “He’s one of those where we can’t wait to have him in spring training and get him going.”
Díaz has yet to begin fielding bunts or covering bases during defensive drills, but as spring training ramps up, those milestones will come for the 29-year old. He said that he felt prepared and ready to return late last season, if the Mets were in playoff contention. But now, he is happy that he did not have to push himself harder back in September, and that he had an extra six months to become even stronger for this season.
Before getting injured, Díaz was coming off one of the best seasons of his career as one of the best relievers in the league in 2022. He collected both Cy Young and MVP votes after saving 32 games and having a 1.31 ERA. Going into the season last year, Díaz was supposed to be the Mets weapon and the anchor to the back end of their bullpen as the team was looking to be a playoff, or even a World Series contender. In November of 2022, the Mets finalized a 5-year, $102 million deal with Díaz. It broke records for the largest contract ever given to a reliever in terms of both total guarantee ($102 million) and average annual value ($20.4 million). However, instead things took a turn as Díaz’s season-ending injury was the first of the many things that went wrong for New York last year. His loss caused shifting roles to the Mets bullpen, and it affected the entire pitching staff, which resulted the front office to taking an entirely different approach to get the franchise in a winning direction.
It is no secret that the New York Mets struggled last year. Starting off the pre-season with losing Díaz for the year definitely took some life out of the Mets, and they seemingly they never fully recovered from the loss. Last year, the Mets bullpen ranked 22nd in ERA. In the process of the Mets front office dismantling the team at the trade deadline last July, they traded away closer David Robertson to league-opponent the Miami Marlins. Díaz’s absence was definitely seen later in the game the seventh and eight innings of last year. The Mets allowed 23 more runs in the seventh inning in 2023 than in 2022 and 20 more runs in the eights inning. The opponents OPS vs the Mets in 2022 from the seventh to eighth inning was 0.643 and 0.781 in 2023.
The trade that sent Díaz to New York was definitely a huge adjustment for fans and the team in itself. It was one of the last big moves that the Mets made before new owner Steve Cohen was in control of the franchise. However, the trade worked itself out when Díaz started to find a flow and make key saves for New York. Everything changed in the fandom when Díaz started to take the mound to the song “Narco” by Timmy Trumpet. It absolutely went viral throughout sports and became a staple to the Mets fan experience at the ballpark when the trumpets sounded in game-saving situations. Over the four years he has been in New York, Díaz has definitely won over Mets fans, and the team would be different without him.
Díaz was asked if he would be using Narco as his walk-up song for the 2024 season on Monday, as the anticipation to hear the sound of the trumpets is higher than ever.
“Yeah, yeah 100%,” said Díaz. “If I changed ‘Narco’ I think I would get in trouble with the fans, I will keep using Narco.”
Over the offseason, the Mets got a new president of baseball operations, David Stearns, and he is in the beginning stages of rebuilding the team. However, having Díaz back is like an automatic huge free agency signing for New York. Having him back for the ninth inning of games played a large role into the way Stearns built the team this past winter.
“It makes everything so much easier,” said Stearns on having an elite closer back. “It makes building the rest of your pen and allowing those guys to feel comfortable in their roles a heck of a lot easier. If Edwin continues on his progression and he’s able to anchor the backend of the pen, that certainly makes the rest of the puzzle fit a little bit more neatly.”
Díaz had a 2.93 ERA over seven seasons in his career and 205 saves. Díaz recorded 32 saves in both 2021 and 2022 for New York, and he’s looking to deliver similar numbers going into this season completely healthy.
“I think we would have been better last year if I were pitching.” Díaz said. “If I was there, I would have been able to help them win more games. I hope this year I will be there with them and make the playoffs. That’s our goal.”
“I think it will be crazy,” Díaz said on the first time he will come out to “Narco” at Citi Field this season. “The fans are waiting for that, that moment with the trumpets. When I come out to pitch, I can’t wait to see the moment and feel it.”