Diaz, despite his horrid season, still had 99 strikeouts in 58 innings, a ratio of 15.36 per 9 frames. If he cuts the long balls in half, he can still succeed. He still has the stuff.

But, I do have the feeling December 2018-July 2019 will be a protracted "Midnight Massacre" for the Mets. Giving up top prospects Justin Dunn (2.70 ERA in his Mariners debut) and Jarred Kelenic (.291/.364/.540 slash line in the minors in 2019) for Diaz and Robinson Cano was an awful move. Then shipping off two more top pitching prospects for Marcus Stroman later on.

The Mets are their own worst enemy.

If you remove his horrid first year (2019) with the Mets, Diaz has actually been quite excellent. Though he has given us headaches, as is a tradition among Mets closers, he has a 2.64 ERA, 155 ERA+ and 15.2 K/9 since 2020. Those are great numbers.

From an absolutely God-awful, Gene Walter-like first season with the Mets, Edwin Diaz has evolved into a superb closer, to be compared with such hallowed Met relievers of the past as the late, great Tug McGraw and Jesse Orosco.

How disappointing was it then, during this past spring training, to see Edwin Diaz get his leg broken during a post-game celebration by Team Puerto Rico in the “popular” World Baseball Classic? Most baseball fans have expressed little or no interest at all in this glorified series of baseball exhibition games. In fact, WFAN’s Sal Licata expressed it best, when he referred to the WBC as the “Worthless Baseball Classic.”

After Edwin Diaz suffered that broken leg, Mets team owner Steve Cohen immediately expressed regret for Edwin Diaz’s injury and full support for his star relief pitcher, who had just re-signed with the Mets for over $100,000,000. However, in private, I wonder if Steve Cohen is ABSOLUTELY livid that his extremely well paid reliever got injured in some meaningless exhibition game? I mean, Steve Cohen is paying Edwin Diaz huge salary, NOT Team Puerto Rico. Edwin Diaz’s first loyalty should be with the New York Mets and not Team Puerto Rico.

Incidentally, Team Puerto Rico was eliminated in the dry next round of the WBC. No doubt, Mets fans were all “devastated” by Team Puerto Rico’s quick exit from the WBC.

One last point, when the next “Worthless” Baseball Classic series takes place in a couple of years, I wonder if New York Mets reliever Edwin Diaz will once again play for Team Puerto Rico or will Edwin Diaz decide that his first loyalty is to Steve Cohen and the New York Mets, who are paying him his enormous salary and just pass on participating in the WBC? We shall see.

Riding high on those numbers and his otherworldly 2022 campaign, especially, the voters in the Mets Hall of Fame project in run on another website elected Diaz with 75% of the vote on his first try.