SAN DIEGO — Carlos Beltran stopped just short of naming his closer to begin next season, but it was clear Tuesday in which direction the new Mets manager is leaning.
Edwin Diaz may have flopped in 2019, but the Mets didn’t trade a significant portion of their future last offseason to give up on him so quickly.
“They hired him before I got here to be the closer,” Beltran said at the winter meetings. “So that’s something that we have to talk about.”
The Mets were prompt in mobilizing after the season, sending a group that included a nutritionist, physical therapist and strength and conditioning instructor to Puerto Rico, with the idea of getting Diaz right.
It came after a season in which the right-hander pitched to a 5.59 ERA and was removed from the closer’s role. Those struggles, along with Jeurys Familia’s season-long implosion, were a significant factor in the team’s empty October, despite a strong second-half surge.
New pitching coach Jeremy Hefner has watched video of Diaz and spoken to returning members of the staff (bullpen coach Ricky Bones and assistant pitching coach Jeremy Accardo) about Diaz in an attempt to get the pitcher on track this winter.
“We have identified some things that will help Edwin moving forward and I’m looking forward to talking to Edwin about those and working on those things right now,” Hefner said. “Not even waiting to spring training and engaging him and trying to get him down a good path right away.”
Beltran was a teammate of Diaz’s for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic in 2017 and developed a relationship with the pitcher. From the other side, Beltran got to face Diaz in the AL West. Beltran played for the Astros and Diaz the Mariners.
“He’s eager to get back, and he’s eager to prove himself, and I believe, as a player, that’s the right mentality that you should have,” Beltran said. “Not because you had a good year the year before. It doesn’t mean that you have to prove yourself. I do believe that every single year you need to show up hungry to spring training and make sure that the people see the work that you did in the offseason.”
Beltran incurred his own first-year slump with the Mets, after arriving in 2005 on a contract worth $119 million. Diaz had the pressure of arriving in a deal that included top prospect Jarred Kelenic.
“It’s a process,” Beltran said. “People a lot of times don’t understand, but when you come from a low-market team to a small-market team to a team that is in New York and you’re going to get all this attention, there’s no doubt that you want to prove yourself. And a lot of times, when things don’t go right, you put extra pressures on yourself.
“So I think, yeah, he went through a process last year where he needed to go through. I don’t think, if he would have received all this good advice, maybe it would have helped him a little bit, but you’ve got to go through the process to understand the system and understand how things work.”