A celebration quickly turned sombre on Wednesday as New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz suffered a knee injury following his team’s 5-2 win over the Dominican Republic.
After striking out Teoscar Hernandez to seal the win, Diaz was mobbed by teammates who began jumping in celebration. However the 28 year old quickly crumpled to the ground in visible pain as his countrymen signalled for the medical staff to hurry onto the field.
“I didn’t see it right away,” manager Yadier Molina said. “I was hugging our coaches in the dugout, and when we looked up, Edwin was on the ground. I didn’t know. I didn’t know how to act, I didn’t know what to say. It caught me by surprise. It sucks. When you see a guy that works so hard like Edwin — when you see him on the ground like that, it’s just sad.”
After several minutes on the ground, the 2x All-Star we helped off the field, unable to put weight on his leg. He was later seen in the stadium in a wheelchair and was set to undergo further medical imaging on Thursday.
According to reports, it’s feared that Diaz tore the patellar tendon in his right knee. If that’s the case, a typical timeline for recovery for such an injury is 6-8 months. While neither the Mets, nor the Puerto Rican medical teams are willing to put any timelines on his rehabilitation process, insiders believe his 2023 MLB season could be done before it even begins.
Diaz was easily baseball’s best reliever in 2022, recording a 1.31 ERA and striking out 50.2% of the batters he faced en route to 32 saves on the year. The righty’s efforts earned him All-MLB 1st team honours, a Relieve of the Year win, and was a huge reason for the Mets resurgent 101-61 record last year.
As a result, the club signed him to a record setting 5yr/$102M contract the day after the World Series wrapped up.
Any prolonged absence will be felt by the Mets as Diaz’s arsenal isn’t easily replaced. The club does have veteran relievers David Robertson, Adam Ottavino and Brooks Raley currently under contract, so they’ll at least have some in house options to consider in the interim. Free agent reliever Zack Britton has also been linked to the Mets in recent weeks, and perhaps Diaz’s unfortunate injury will signal renewed negotiations between the two camps.
New York opened the season with the 4th best World Series odds trailing only the Astros, Yankees and Dodgers. It remains to be seen what effect Diaz’s injury will have on the Mets long term outlook for 2023.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: D. Benjamin Miller. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.