Nearly 24 hours had passed, and Mickey Callaway remained in disbelief.
Edwin Diaz had blown what should have been a dramatic comeback win in Philadelphia. The closer, considered the Mets’ prized acquisition of the offseason, looked no different than every other reliever helping sink the season, allowing a career-high five runs on a pair of ninth-inning homers.
“You can go out there and throw [batting practice] and that might not happen,” Callaway said of Diaz, who did not pitch in the Mets’ 6-2 loss to the Braves on Friday night. “Part of it’s unbelievable that they’re able to do that a couple times against him.”
The shock should already have been absorbed, even if Diaz has as many blown saves in his past eight appearances as he had in 61 chances with Seattle last season (four). Over his past nine games, the right-hander has gone 0-3 with a 13.00 ERA.
Though Diaz threw a perfect inning Wednesday, the former pitching coach has noticed a recurring issue in the closer’s most disappointing outings.
“We’ve looked into it deeply and it’s not every game,” Callaway said. “The delivery was different from day to day. The location was different from day to day, so it’s really about location, and sometimes his delivery gets a little out of whack. They talked about it a week ago and he was real excited about it and he was able to change it for a couple outings, and he reverted back to it [Thursday]. It’s like any other pitcher, there’s gonna be mechanical flaws throughout the season.
“You’re not gonna execute pitches from day to day, and I think it’s more about that and the consistency of that than anything. When he’s right, he’s the same guy he was last year. I delved into all of his numbers today, and those are the main factors. Delivery gets a little bit out of whack, he gets across his body a little bit and the location is more middle-middle than getting the ball where he wants to. It’s as simple as that.”
Could it also be as simple as the 25-year-old struggling to adjust to the spotlight, following three years tucked away in the Pacific Northwest?
“I don’t get that sense at all,” Callaway said. “Talking to him, seeing his reaction after the game, more importantly seeing him today in there, smiling, same guy he always is. That’s not an issue from what I can tell.”
For the first two months of the season, Diaz was the rare reliable arm in the bullpen. He converted his first 12 saves, and had sealed 22 straight, dating back to last season. On May 28, his ERA sat at 1.64. Since then, he has given up at least three runs on three occasions, and his ERA was at 4.94, entering Friday.
But given that the Mets bullpen ranked 28th in ERA (5.65), and had been even worse over the past 18 games (7.76), Callaway lacks desirable alternatives. When asked how he could have confidence in a reliever whose poor mechanics keep leading to losses, the manager countered that he couldn’t know when to expect that.
“You have that risk with every pitcher every single night,” Callaway said. “We don’t have a crystal ball to tell us when those are gonna show up, so really you can’t use that as part of information when you send a guy out there. If it continues to happen over and over again to the point where man, it’s just not working, then obviously, it comes into your decision-making. But when a guy goes out there lights out the night before, you pretty much feel like he’s gonna do the same thing the next night.”
