Edwin Díaz on Monday night—pitching on back-to-back days—notched his 100th career save with the Mets. He’s now just one save shy of tying Billy Wagner for fifth all-time with the Mets, and he’s certainly within reason to pass Jeurys Familia‘s 124 saves for third by the end of this season.
He’s come a long way from his introductory 2019 season, which saw the reliever pitch to 5.59 ERA over 58 innings. It was a disastrous season. He still struck out everyone under the sun, but he allowed homer after homer and blew save after save. But he got right in 2020—one of the bright spots that season—and has maintained dominance since.
But the pitcher Díaz has been so far this season is different than the one from his 2022 season, when he allowed just nine earned runs all season over 62 innings (1.31 ERA). His velocity is multiple ticks down with both his fastball (down 2.5 mph) and slider (down 1.8 mph). But that’s understandable given he’s returning from a significant knee injury—a torn patella tendon suffered before the 2023 season could get off the ground.
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Díaz’s injury was on his right leg—his push-off leg—which pitchers who have suffered similar injuries have said is the easier leg to fully heal from. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t take time.
The 30-year-old didn’t pitch in a live game until March 11, nearly a year after suffering the injury. He has just 10.2 competitive innings under his belt between spring and the regular season, and his command so far isn’t quite as pinpoint as it was in 2022.
Even as he powered up in a big moment Monday night—touching 97.7 mph on an 0-2 pitch to Oneil Cruz—the pitch sailed. He still got Cruz on a slider two pitches later.
But that will get honed in as he gets his legs back under him. And remember that this is Díaz’s first season pitching with the pitch clock. He now has less time between pitches to power up to 99-100 mph. (His tempo in three seconds quicker this year compared to 2022, according to Statcast.) This velocity range may be his new normal.
Despite this, the results have been there. He’s allowed one earned run in seven innings (1.29 ERA) and he has 10 strikeouts over those frames. That’s less than the insane 50% clip he was running in 2022 but closer to career averages.
Post-injury, he may not be the exact same Edwin Díaz we got used to seeing in 2022, but he’s still been incredibly effective. We’ll see throughout the summer what that new normal is, but he’ll still be the anchor to the Mets’ bullpen—one that’s been successful outside of Díaz and likely made his transition back to competitive pitching a bit easier.
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