Reese Kaplan -- Edwin Diaz On Fire For The Mets

During the off-season between 1998 and 1999 the Mets engaged in an interesting three-team trade that sent Charles Johnson to the Baltimore Orioles, Todd Hundley to the Los Angeles Dodgers and the pair of Armando Benitez and Roger Cedeno arriving at Shea Stadium in New York.  While the sacrifice made -- Todd Hundley -- was significant, the fact is that he’d lost his job to 1998 arrival Mike Piazza.  After some ill-fated attempts to play left field, it was clear Hundley needed to leave town.  Following his 41 and 30 HR seasons for the Mets (which may have been aided by the syringe), he never approached these numbers again and was out of baseball at age 34.  

Now everyone was excited to see Armando Benitez who was a true flamethrower after years of watching the finesse pitcher John Franco saving games for the Mets.  The Tomato Farmer never seemed to connect to the fans after they lost Randy Myers to get him and he seemingly was throwing effortlessly to get batters out when they faced him.  Don’t get me wrong.  Franco’s numbers are unbelievable.  For his career he has a winning 90-87 record with 424 saves, a career ERA of just 2.89 while averaging just 7 strikeouts per 9 IP.  

Compare that style to Benitez who was once recorded throwing his fastball at 102 MPH and you can see why people were anxious to yank the closer’s job away from Franco for this alleged man’s man of a fireman.  Benitez had his moments, including a pair of All-Star appearances.  However, for his career he held a losing record, a good, but not stellar 3.13 ERA and he struck out nearly 11 per game.  Unfortunately he also walked nearly 5.  Consequently, the bad days with Benitez may very well have outweighed the good ones.

This Mets history came to mind while watching the last few games closed by Edwin Diaz.  Everyone is aware of his terrible arrival performance in 2019 and the price paid that included giving up uber-prospect Jarred Kelenic.  He finished that season going 2-7 with a 5.59 ERA and despite saving 26 games he was regularly and deservedly booed when he came into games.

During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season Diaz seemed to remember what made him a Rookie of the Year and an All Star in the American League.  He finished the season at just age 26 going 2-1 with a splendid 1.75 ERA and 19 saves in a 60-game season.  Extrapolated he was on a path to finish with well over 40 saves.  More importantly, he struck out an ungodly 17.5 per 9 IP yet fans weren’t so quick to forgive and forget.  

The 2021 season has been a bit more up and down when there are days Diaz looked unbeatable and days when you didn’t entrust him to close an inning let alone a game.  However, if you paid attention to his last couple of saves you saw some things that really stood out.  Diaz is also regularly crossing that triple digit market when it comes to throwing the baseball, yet despite the two straight three-strikeout saves he notched against the Blue Jays and Braves, it was the way in which he notched the K’s that really caught my attention.

Unlike most power arms who simply try to throw the ball past you in your attempt to get around and swing solidly, Diaz reminded me of John Franco.  No, he’s not a lefty, not he’s not a diminutive presence on the mound and no, he does not throw a screwball.  However, what both pitchers did effectively was get batters to swing weakly at the illusion of a strike.  None was more relevant in this observation than the inning ending whiff with a pitch both low and outside.  He’s best not in the power arm game, but in confusing the batters as to where the pitch will break.

Right now Diaz has 22 saves, an ERA of around 4.00, but if you’d ask any major league hitters there is no way they volunteer to face him when he’s in the kind of groove he’s established lately.  It’s about time for the Mets fans to begin to appreciate the quality of pitcher they have in Diaz and instead look for them to reinforce other arms in the pen to lead to his closing opportunities.