PORT ST. LUCIE — The three-weeks-on-the-job manager spoke in a renovated clubhouse to pitchers, catchers and rehab players that included winter additions Dellin Betances, Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha.

Yet, what’s old is new again.

The linchpin of the 2020 Mets for Luis Rojas is Edwin Diaz. Same as last year for Mickey Callaway. If the Mets had received the 2018 version of Diaz in 2019, they very well might have been the second wild card rather than the eventual champion Nationals.

The Mets are desperate for that 2018 Diaz again. Could Seth Lugo close if Diaz resembles the homer derby pitcher of last season? Sure. Lugo was one of the five best relievers in the majors last year. But that removes Lugo from his best usage, which is as an attack dog (even for multiple innings) from the sixth inning on.


If Diaz can handle the ninth, Lugo can fill that fireman role. Then the Mets are not as desperate to have both Betances and Jeurys Familia also resemble their strong 2018s. If they get even one of those guys healthy and productive, terrific. Two would give them one of the best pens in the majors, especially since Justin Wilson is also still around and so is Robert Gsellman for bulk. But it all starts with Diaz in the end. If he excels, the rest of the pen lines up so much better.

“You hit it on the head, I agree with that 100 percent,” said Jeremy Hefner, also new around the Mets as their pitching coach.

Hefner is the main piece of a consortium of Mets employees trying to get Diaz’s condition, mind and repertoire right. Like Betances and especially Familia, Diaz came into camp leaner after being more mindful of his nutrition in the offseason. The righty insists his head is fine and that the “can’t pitch in New York” label is untrue. And the dirty secret is the stuff was pretty good last year as Diaz struck out 99 in 58 innings.


“He has some of the best stuff in the league,” Hefner said.


Then how to explain 15 homers and a 5.59 ERA and an overall performance that did more to submarine the Mets as a playoff team than anything else in 2019?

Diaz said it was faulty mechanics. He opened up his front shoulder too soon too often, plus his hand position was off. Fastballs that overwhelmed hitters on the outer third in 2018 ran back over the plate in 2019. And hittable pitches over the plate in 2019 tended not just to get hit, but to be launched, walloped, clobbered.

“I left too many pitches right in the middle,” Diaz said.


Yet, Hefner is focusing on more than mechanics, sounding like a psychiatrist as much as a pitching coach. He sees the best fastball and slider beginning with the right mindset.


“It is just about him,” Hefner said. “What he does. What makes him good. How he finds his joy. How he is competitive. It is all about him. It can’t be about who’s catching or who’s hitting or who the umpire is or if there are five people in the crowd or 80,000. He can’t control any of that. He can only control what is going on in his chest and inside of his brain. That is what we have been focusing on and when things go awry — which they will, this is an imperfect game for a pitcher, you are going to fail — it is not letting it snowball. It is going back to that center and where we rooted him. ‘This is who you are. This is your strength, now get after it.’”

Hefner insists so far, so good. That Diaz is working with confidence and that the ball — even without max effort — is coming out crisp. Hefner said, “He has to do it between the lines and he knows that too. But in terms of February, he is in a really, really good spot.”

Will it last? At this time in 2019, the Mets were thrilled to have Diaz. Today, he is the face to what currently is an abysmal trade — Seattle received one of the majors’ best prospects in Jarred Kelenic while the Mets got Diaz and Robinson Cano, who had his worst season at the plate and with health in 2019. Brodie Van Wagenen, who made that deal, said he doesn’t feel pressure for Diaz to justify the trade, saying, “I don’t view any one move in a vacuum.”

But for Van Wagenen and especially the 2020 Mets, it sure would be much better if the 2018 Diaz shows up. When it comes to closing games, late is better than never.

Ref;nypost.com