Expectations were sky high for the 2023 New York Mets, and yet, the season was essentially over before it even started. Edwin Diaz, one of the key figures of their 101-win team in 2022, suffered a season-ending injury while celebrating a win in the World Baseball Classic. It was the kind of injury you’d expect only a Mets player to suffer. That one incident proved to be a gut punch that the Mets could not rebound from en route to a forgettable year.
Considering what transpired in 2023, Diaz’s desire to return to the World Baseball Classic stage in 2026 and represent his country, Puerto Rico, has Mets fans on edge. On one hand, it’s cool to watch him on that stage. On the other hand, though, it’s hard for Mets fans not to have PTSD from what occurred last time Diaz was there, even though it wasn’t actually a baseball-related injury.
With that in mind, the Mets organization will have a tough decision to make.
Edwin Diaz has Mets fans and organization on edge as he’d like to return to WBC
When Diaz pitched for Puerto Rico in the 2023 WBC, he was on top of the world. He was coming off one of the best seasons a Mets reliever has ever had and took home the National League’s Reliever of the Year award. He was expected to close games for another formidable Mets team in 2023, but again, suffered a brutal season-ending injury.
The worst part about that injury was how it happened — it was a total freak accident. Diaz did not hurt his arm in any way while pitching. He didn’t hurt any part of his body while pitching, actually. Instead, he tore his patellar tendon in his right knee while celebrating a win. How often do we see a player get hurt jumping up and down?
Diaz missed the 2023 campaign and although he wasn’t bad in 2024, he wasn’t close to the dominant force he was in 2022. Understandably, it took Diaz some time to recover from his catastrophic injury before he finally started to look more like his dominant self down the stretch of the 2024 campaign.
Despite the bad memory and the long recovery process, Diaz wants to go back. His reasoning, revealed to Tim Healey of Newsday ($) is tough to get mad at.
“I know I got hurt there, but it was a freak injury. It was weird,” Diaz said. “It’s not like I got hurt pitching or something. But I want to see where they’re at with me and see how it goes.”
Again, Diaz did not get hurt throwing the baseball in any way — he got hurt jumping up and down after a game. That freak injury caused the right-hander to tone down celebrations, as we saw right before and during the 2024 postseason.
They were 0-5
They were 11 games under .500
The New York Mets are going to the playoffs pic.twitter.com/Dy4EvqvApd
— Joe DeMayo (@PSLToFlushing) September 30, 2024
When the Mets clinched a postseason berth, instead of jumping in celebration, Diaz spiked his glove down and was screaming in victory as his teammates were going nuts around him. He was celebrating — but differently. The same thing took place when the Mets advanced to the NLCS. Chances are, this toned down celebration would take place in the WBC if Diaz participated and if Puerto Rico had reason to celebrate.
Mets fans have reason to be concerned with Diaz, the team’s best reliever, making another WBC appearance after suffering such a catastrophic injury last time, but how likely is it that he suffers the same injury again? He might end up hurting his arm pitching, but even if he skipped out on the tournament he’d be pitching in spring training, so it’d be hard to blame the tournament for that outcome.
It’s easy to see where both sides are coming from. With that in mind, it’ll be interesting to see what decision gets made when the time does come.
