Mets’ Steve Cohen Explains Plan to Replace Edwin Diaz

He suffered a torn patellar tendon while celebrating a win in the World Baseball Classic.

Edwin Díaz’s likely season-ending injury during the World Baseball Classic was a nightmare scenario for the Mets. Losing arguably the best closer in baseball will hurt any team’s chances of making the World Series, but team owner Steve Cohen says that he and leadership need to stay calm during the process of looking for a possible replacement. 

“When you get into a situation like this, I think you stay calm, you don’t overreact,” Cohen said on The Show: A NY Post baseball podcast with Joel Sherman & Jon Heyman Wednesday when asked about potentially trading for Díaz’s younger brother Alexis Díaz, the Reds reliever. “I think if you do, [you have] the tendency to make mistakes or overpay for somebody.”

Cohen also suggested that New York is in no rush to make any such move. 

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“We’re going to assess the people we have,” he continued. “We have some reasonably good depth. It’s a long season, and opportunities come up along the way and that’s how we’re gonna approach it. So, if we need to fill a hole, we’ll fill it, but I don’t see a need to overreact.”

Díaz suffered the torn patellar tendon while celebrating Puerto Rico’s win in the World Baseball Classic and it was originally thought that he would be lost for the year. However, a report from The Athletic’s Will Sammon suggested that Díaz believes he can return in time for a World Series run, but that scenario is unlikely. 

He had a 1.31 ERA last year and struck out 118 batters in 62 innings on the mound for New York.