QUEENS — New York Mets star closer Edwin Diaz is continuing to hold out hope that he’ll be able to return to the mound this season after suffering a torn patellar tendon during the World Baseball Classic last month.
“I’m feeling great,” the fireballing right-hander said on Wednesday prior to the Mets’ series finale against the San Diego Padres. “We are working hard to see if we can come back as soon as possible but everything is going in the right direction right now.
“The team doctor says I’m doing great so I’m really happy.”
Diaz’s hope that he’ll be back this season is still seen as a lofty one. When he suffered the injury celebrating with his Team Puerto Rico teammates, the immediate recovery timeline prescribed was eight months following surgery on March 16. By those parameters, that would mean Diaz would be good to go in November which would be after the season.
But the 29-year-old, who was resting on crutches outside the Mets’ clubhouse on Wednesday, has exuded confidence from the jump that he’ll beat those eight-month expectations and potentially help the Mets at the very latter stages of the season — though realistically that would be in the postseason if the Mets did, in fact, make it.
“[The doctors want me] to get my knee better and then they’ll see how I’m responding with my strength, all those things,” Diaz said. “If the tests come back good, I might throw this year.”
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Coming just three months after signing the richest reliever contract in MLB history at five years, $102 million, Diaz’s injury was a massive blow to a Mets team that is deploying a patchwork bullpen to supplement the loss of the game’s most dominant closer who struck out more than half the batters he faced last season while racking up 32 saves and a 1.31 ERA.
David Robertson and Adam Ottavino have shared ninth-inning duties throughout the infancy of the 2023 season.
In the meantime, Diaz continues to rehab in New York where he’s working to keep his arm and the rest of his body in shape to ensure he can be a difference-maker immediately — whether that comes this season or next.
“It’s a good time to get all of my body stronger,” Diaz said. “I’m doing really good. I’m not working on just [my knee].”
Of course, there will be multiple hurdles in the form of running and transitioning from throwing on flat surfaces to the mound that he’ll have to clear before such a reality becomes clearer.
“If everything goes well, I think I can be back soon and before eight months,” he said.
