With a bevy of internal players set to hit the free agency market, Billy Eppler and the Mets’ front office have a critical offseason ahead of them.
The Mets general manager recently joined Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman as a guest on their podcast The Show, discussing a number of topics including the end of the Mets’ season and the team’s outlook heading into free agency.
Of course, one of the biggest names on the Mets roster that is about to hit free agency is Edwin Diaz, who was electric in 2022 while cementing himself as perhaps the best closer in the game.
When asked about Diaz, Eppler didn’t get into too much detail but he explained that both the team and the player know where each other stand on a potential new deal.
“Edwin was nothing short of fantastic this season and it was very comforting to watch him come into a game,” Eppler said. “I really appreciated, and I know Buck did too, the usability in some different roles. We saw him pitch in the eighth inning a number of times over the course of the season and he was a very reliable and impactful player for us over the course of the season.
“Would we like to have him back? Absolutely. Are we going to be able to get something worked out? Potentially. But he’s reached a point in his career where he’s afforded himself the opportunity with the ability to look around if he so chooses, but he knows how we feel about him and we know how he feels about us and how comfortable he was this year. He expressed that and I’m not sure if he expressed that specifically to Buck [Showalter], but I passed it along because when I was talking to his agent, he mentioned that. Edwin can provide a big boost to the bullpen and like I said, be used in a number of roles. But we’ll see what the coming day and coming weeks provides.”
Diaz had one of the best seasons of his seven-year career in 2022, posting a 1.31 ERA with 17.1 K/9 and 32 saves. He also captivated Mets fans every time he entered the game at Citi Field, running in from the bullpen to thunderous applause as the trumpets blared.
But come the final out of the World Series, Diaz will become a free agent, free to sign with any club after a five-day waiting period.
It’s not impossible for the Mets to ink Diaz to a new contract before he hits the open market, but Eppler admitted it’s a difficult thing to accomplish.
“It’s hard to execute that, especially when you’re a few days or maybe a week away from the start of that free agency period, so that can be a little bit more difficult to do, but we have been in touch with some of our group,” Eppler said. “Not going to get into specifics of the whos and not going to handicap the likelihood that anything gets done in advance of free agency, but a lot of the players know where we stand and I’ve had some conversations with the people on their side. But they understand what we need to do this wintertime, the number of kind of holes we have opening up on our roster, both in the rotation in the pen and on the position player side as well.
“The best thing that you can do in my chair is communicate and be very transparent with your players and let them know what you need to accomplish and cast the scene for them so that they have a thorough understanding, but communication is key.”