Had Edwin Diaz struggled at all during his first two spring training appearances, calls would've likely started anew from a segment of the Mets fan base who refuse to be confident in him despite a 2020 that was so dominant that he made history.
But Diaz has been perfect in his two spring appearances, retiring all six batters he's faced with ease as his fastball has reached the high-90s and his slider has looked terrific.
Still, there are those who seemingly refuse to rely on their own eyes when it comes to Diaz.
A sampling of those replying to recent tweets about Diaz's dominance:
- "Until he does it in a full season I will never say he is elite"
- "People don't want him to be the closer for good reason"
- "Hasn't been good in big spots. I am hoping he does well but so far not good"
- "In a big spot Diaz comes up very small"
Here's the thing...
It's fine to have some residual PTSD when it comes to Diaz's fluky 2019 that was due in part to changes to the baseball and his inability to harness his slider, which impacted other pitchers as well.
You can be a bit wary of any closer while understanding that closer is elite and has some of the nastiest stuff in the sport.
But at some point (and that point is now) you're simply lying to yourself if you're still saying with a straight face that Edwin Diaz isn't a dominant reliever and that he isn't clearly the Mets' best option to close games.
To those who say Diaz hasn't done it over a full season? That's very wrong.
Diaz was one of the best and most dominant relievers in the sport in both 2016 (when he came in fifth in AL Rookie of the Year voting) and 2017.
In 2018, Diaz was the best reliever in the sport, with a 1.96 ERA (1.61 FIP) and 0.79 WHIP while striking out 15.2 batters per 9 and notching a league-leading 57 saves for the Seattle Mariners.
Then came 2019, when Diaz struggled badly, but when his advanced numbers showed flukiness (including an absurdly high home run/fly ball rate) and that his stuff was still elite (he struck out a career-best 15.4 batters per 9).
But 2019 was tough for Diaz, and any Mets fan who has scars from watching Armando Benitez walk Paul O'Neill while blowing Game 1 of the 2000 World Series and watching Jeurys Familia serve up a game-tying home run in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series was right to be alarmed at what happened to Diaz in Year 1 in Queens.
But as is noted above and as I outlined here before last season, all signs pointed toward a huge bounce back for Diaz in 2020. And it happened.