Edwin Diaz is arguably the most important addition the Mets made this off-season. He’s young and one of the best closers in the game. The Mets gave up a ton to get him (and Robinson Cano, but the talent loss in the trade was to get Diaz).
The Mets the last two seasons have gone through mini-firesales where they trade everyone they can for top 15 to top 30+ type pitching prospects that throw hard, hoping to overhaul their bullpen. So far they’ve had mixed results but no bonafide stars have emerged. To compete in 2019, the Mets decided to complement Lugo and Gsellman with Diaz and a reunion with Familia. On paper, the four of them represent one of the stronger bullpens in the division.
2018: 73.3 IP, 1.96 ERA, 1.61 FIP, 0.791 WHIP, 15.2 K/9, 3.2 WAR, 1.77 DRA
Career: 2.64 ERA, 2.56 FIP, 1.016 WHIP, 14.2 K/9, 2.28 DRA
Diaz’s career line is fantastic but his 2018 is unbelievable. He just had a tremendous year on the mound last year. Think about how good deGrom was last year. Jacob posted a 1.99 FIP, Diaz has a 1.61. Just statistically speaking, it is incredibly difficult to get that number so low. His WHIP was just tremendously low, two tenths lower than his career.
Here’s what computers think he’ll do for an encore:
Increases across the board from last year’s numbers, but very few pitchers have put up a season like Diaz did last year and followed it by an even better season. It’s been a while a since the Mets have had someone in the pen with an ERA around 2.5 and a WHIP below 1. If he puts up numbers closer to that average line the Mets could be in very good shape.
The lineups across the division, minus the Marlins got a lot better last year. The Mets pitchers have more difficult batters to face. They retooled with Diaz, and now we’ll have to wait and see if it was enough.
This is the first time in a while though the Mets have an exciting closer that is marked as marquee (Familia was great but for some reason never got that label). He is going to be a star.
