This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat publication. To learn the complete publication, click on right here. And subscribe to get it frequently in your inbox.
As Edwin Díaz continues to inch nearer to a return from March knee surgical procedure, the query on everybody’s thoughts appears to be: “Why?”
The reply, per pitching coach Jeremy Hefner: “Why not?”
It’s vital to notice that the Mets gained’t, beneath any circumstances, pitch Díaz this season until he’s utterly wholesome. Every dialogue staff officers have had relating to Díaz’s short-term future hinges upon the concept of him returning to full well being in some unspecified time in the future in September. The nearer’s standing, at that time, can be no completely different than that of Kodai Senga, José Quintana, Adam Ottavino, Brooks Raley or some other pitcher the Mets count on to play a significant function for them in 2024.
If Díaz by no means reaches that benchmark, the Mets will chorus from utilizing him. Full cease.
Many consider the Mets ought to place Díaz in bubble wrap regardless, contemplating the staff’s placement within the standings. But that line of considering ignores the truth that Díaz is a human being who simply went by a significant surgical procedure and 6 monotonous months of rehab. He likes to pitch. He desires to pitch. If Díaz is wholesome sufficient to take action with out assuming any kind of irregular danger, Mets officers really feel inclined to grant him that want.
“I want to finish the season on a positive note,” Díaz stated late final month. “I want to try to come back and help this team to win this year.”
Of course, nobody is forcing the Mets to present in to Díaz’s needs. This staff isn’t making the playoffs. The Mets owe their nearer $102 million over 5 seasons no matter whether or not he throws a pitch this month. Moreover, the very act of pitching — “putting your arm over your head and jerking it down violently,” as supervisor Buck Showalter likes to explain it — is inherently dangerous; that might be true even when Díaz hadn’t torn the patellar tendon in his proper knee whereas celebrating a World Baseball Classic victory again in March.
For all these causes, Showalter doesn’t “feel strongly” about Díaz returning.
“There’s pros and cons to it,” the supervisor stated. “We’re going to do physically what’s best for him. Regardless of what it might mean to him, if it’s not in their best interest physically, it’s a really bad idea. So we’re going to lean on the medical aspect of it.”
When Díaz tore his tendon again in March, the prognosis got here with a restoration timeline of six to eight months. In earlier examples of huge league pitchers who returned from patellar tears, together with Zach Eflin and Garrett Richards, the Mets decided that Díaz would want to come back again quicker than all of them to pitch once more this season. They by no means dominated out that possibility. They additionally by no means dedicated to it.
So why take the danger now? In an ideal world, the Mets would favor to keep away from having Díaz go 18 months between Major League video games. They have a curiosity about his velocity and stuff coming off surgical procedure. But greater than something, they wish to reward their greatest reliever for a summer time of laborious work — supplied the danger of doing so is successfully zero.
For now, Díaz continues to throw bullpen classes with a watch towards going through hitters quickly. After that is still an open query that Mets officers aren’t scared to face.
“If he feels good about it, if the team feels good about it, if it’s what’s best for next year, that’s the answer,” Hefner stated. “If it’s what’s best for next year, then we should do it.”
Content Source: www.mlb.com