All-Star's Return Should Give New York Mets Bullpen Huge Improvement

The New York Mets are anxious to get their veteran closer, Edwin Diaz, back for the 2024 season.

The New York Mets were a mess in many areas in 2023, not the least of which was its bullpen.

The Mets played the entire season without their closer, Edwin Díaz, who suffered a freak injury celebrating with his teammates at the World Baseball Classic.

With that, the Mets pressed David Robertson into service as their closer. But when the season was lost, they shipped him to Miami.

Robertson finished the season with 14 saves, but Adam Ottavino pitched in 12. Drew Smith and Brooks Raley had three saves each. As a team, the Mets had just 34 saves. One could argue that with 75 wins, there wasn’t much to save.

Díaz, by contrast, had 32 saves in 2022 and has 205 saves for his career.

That prompts a question — just how much of a difference does a healthy Díaz make to the Mets? That wasn’t the question MLB.com intended to answer, but the site recently did.

The site put together a list of which teams had improved the most at each position group in baseball. It factored in free agent moves, trades, player losses and return of players from injury. The comparison was simple — the team’s 2023 wins above replacement (WAR) at the position and 2024 projections put together by FanGraphs.

Last year the Mets ranked No. 29 at relief pitcher. The 2024 projections have the Mets at No. 13. The site writes that Díaz’s return is the single biggest reason for the bump. In fact, the bump is the best in baseball at the position.

Díaz probably won’t be the only reason the Mets’ bullpen is better in 2024. New president of baseball operations has turned over much of the pitching staff looking for relievers that can boost a staff that struggled behind the Mets’ starting rotation.

But getting Díaz back will be a huge boost, and the numbers back that up.