Wednesday night the New York Mets were dealt a significant blow when All-Star closer Edwin Díaz suffered a torn patellar tendon in his right knee during Puerto Rico’s on-field celebration following a victory over the Dominican Republic in a win-or-go-home World Baseball Classic game. Díaz will have surgery and is expected to miss eight months, likely ending his season.
“We won’t update Edwin’s timeline for a while,” Mets GM Billy Eppler told Newsday and Fox Sports on Thursday. “… To nobody’s surprise, he’s in great spirits. Last night when he talked to me, he was like, ‘Don’t worry. This is going to be fine.'”
The injury is a fluke that occurred when Díaz appeared to be doing nothing more than jumping up and down with his teammates. The celebration was not aggressive. There was no dogpile or people being thrown around or anything like that. Sometimes unfortunate things happen and Díaz’s injury is an unfortunate thing that happened.
Although the Díaz injury is most significant, it is not the only pitching injury the Mets have suffered within the last week. Lefty José Quintana will be out until midseason with a rib injury and depth relievers Sam Coonrod (strained lat) and Bryce Montes de Oca (stress reaction in elbow) exited spring training games with injuries recently.
Here is what New York’s Opening Day bullpen could look like in the wake of Díaz’s injury:
One of Tylor Megill and David Peterson will slide into the rotation to replace Quintana, and the other could move into the bullpen. Other bullpen candidates include lefty Joey Lucchesi, who is returning from Tommy John surgery; righties Jeff Brigham, Stephen Ridings, and Jimmy Yacabonis; and Buck Showalter favorite lefty T.J. McFarland.
Opening Day is two weeks away and of course Eppler will scour the market to see whether any free agents or trades make sense to help replace Díaz, not that Díaz can be replaced. He’s the best reliever in the sport and by definition that makes him irreplaceable. All you can do is try to replace as much of the lost production and depth as possible.
With that in mind, here’s a look at New York’s bullpen options following Díaz’s knee injury.
1. Stick with what they have
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