Since taking over as Mets manager in late January, Luis Rojas has been reluctant to name any member of bullpen as the team’s closer.
On Wednesday, the Mets’ skipper was once again asked about naming a closer heading into the 60-game 2020 season, and he again chose to keep things open-ended, saying that the Mets are thankful to have so many options at the back end of games.
“Right now I’m very much open-minded about our bullpen, watching each guy and how they keep performing in camp,” Rojas said. “You are right about the history of our guys that are in the bullpen, just their experience being closers. That’s just something that we’re thankful to have.
Incumbent Edwin Diaz struggled during his first season in Queens, pitching to a 5.59 ERA while allowing an eye-opening 15 home runs in 2019. But there’s no doubting that Diaz has the stuff – including a wipeout slider and electric fastball – to get the job done as closer, a role he performed well for the Seattle Mariners.
Aside from Diaz (135 career saves), the Mets have plenty of other options who not only have the potential to be closers, but also have experience saving games. Jeurys Familia (124), Dellin Betances (36), Brad Brach (33), Hunter Strickland (21), Seth Lugo (9) and Justin Wilson (4) all have at least some experience finishing games.
And the 362 career big-league saves between that group is something that Rojas sees as a luxury for the team.
“Brodie [Van Wagenen] did a great job just putting a lot of individuals that can do different things towards the last third of the game or end of the game. Having that I think is a luxury,” said Rojas. “We can use guys earlier in the game that have that experience but right now I’m just thinking that we have all those guys that can definitely help us win a game.”
In a perfect world, Rojas and the Mets would likely prefer Diaz to simply lock down the job, while having the others as fallback options. After all, the Mets traded a significant asset in prospect Jarred Kelenic (along with four other players) to acquire Diaz, along with Robinson Cano, last offseason.
Plus, the 26-year-old still wants the job.
"My mentality has always been that I am a closer despite what happened last year" Diaz said through an interpreter last Friday. "This offseason I went in and trained hard, I worked on different things that gave me the confidence to make me feel that I could be the closer of this team."
"So now going into this second Spring Training, I'm gonna try to prove during these next two-to-three weeks that I can be the closer of this team."
The Mets’ bullpen had its struggles in 2019, but the way it’s currently built, it could be one of the deepest and most talented pens in all of baseball. And that, of course, would certainly be luxury in a such a unique, sprint-like season with so many other variables at play.