The Mets have a plethora of players coming off of the roster in the next set of days. We’re not talking solely about the back-end of the rotation, or a late-inning defensive upgrade that you can plug and play.
One of the positions that need to be addressed with some urgency is the team’s set up man/closer.
Edwin Diaz- Man, did Diaz’ relationship with the Mets start out extremely rocky. Being that he was packaged in a trade that included Robinson Cano for highly touted prospect, center fielder Jarred Kelnic, the beef started before Diaz ever even suited up.
His first year of play in Queens didn’t exactly help any fans forget, as the right-hander ended up sporting a 5.59 ERA, a 2-7 record while the closer only had 26 saves during the 2019 campaign.
However, since then, Diaz has been as about as dominant as any pitcher in the league, including his teammate Jacob deGrom. Diaz has become such a fan favorite in Flushing, that his entrance to his games played have become such an incredible spectacle and it creates an electric energy in that stadium.
Alexis Diaz- Mets owner Steve Cohen has shown that he doesn’t mind spending the coin to put on a damn good show. He did exactly that in 2022 when the team hosted “Old Timers Day“.
Another amazing show would be watching the Mets roll out the Diaz brothers pitch back-to-back innings to close the game out. While the Mets did in fact contact the Cincinnati Reds to check in on acquiring Alexis, a deal never came to fruition.
In 2022, Diaz debuted with the Reds and appeared in 59 games while putting up a dominant 1.84 ERA with a 7-3 record and 10 saves… so don’t expect this to come cheap.
Andrew Chafin- Chafin will likely decline his $6.5M player option with the Detroit Tigers for the 2023 season. So this will be the second straight year, maybe even third, that the Mets will have interest in the lefty hander.
Chafin pitched to a 2.83 ERA in 57.1 innings during the 2022 season, which is actually a little bit of a drop off from his year prior (1.83 ERA).
So while his numbers against left handed batters were not as good as in 2021, he still pitched well enough (.233/.320/.344) for his agents to advise him to opt-out. In fact, it’s probably his numbers against right handed batters (.214/.268/.317), that’ll make him one of the more attractive options for this bullpen.
Also Read: Should Givens Stay?
Photo via SNY
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