New York Mets 'Absolutely' Want to Re-Sign Edwin Diaz
It would be a tough pill to swallow if the New York Mets lose elite closer Edwin Diaz in free agency.
Diaz is coming off a stellar season for the Mets, in which he posted a 1.31 ERA, 32 saves and 17.1 strikeouts per nine innings. For that, the hard-throwing closer is setup to receive a potential record-setting payday on the open market.
In an appearance on The New York Post's podcast The Show, Mets general manager Billy Eppler acknowledged Diaz's free agency by saying both sides know how the other one feels regarding a potential new contract.
“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," Eppler told The Post. "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.”
Once the World Series concludes, Diaz will officially become a free agent. After five days, the righty will be free to sign with any team in the league.
Although it's not unheard of, Eppler went on to explain why re-signing Diaz or any of their other players before free agency is a difficult task.
“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.”
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