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The hopes of Mets fans went south in a hurry this week, as closer Edwin Diaz suffered a season-ending knee injury before the season even began. But, speaking on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program, New York Newsday’s Mets beat writer Tim Healey said the sky isn’t falling on Mets fans just yet. “The Mets lineup is good, their pitching is still good. The Mets, even without Edwin Diaz, should still be a good team,” Healey told Berman and morning news anchor Joe Bartlett, who was filling in for Riedel. “They just won’t be quite as good as they were supposed to be.”
Still, Healey was quick to point out that the players’ health is why the team’s 2023 season was a gamble to begin with. “The Mets made a very expensive bet investing (in Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander) that, if and when they decline or get hurt because they’re a little older, that it won’t be this year,” Healey said. “They also made a bet in Edwin Diaz and that just got whacky immediately, so it’s not off to a good start in 2023.”
A bigger concern for the team, Healey says, is adjusting to the new pace-of-play rules Major League Baseball implemented for the upcoming season. “The pace had slowed down to such a point that there is a lot of dead time within games,” Healey told Berman and Bartlett. “There are some things to fine tune, and they’re still trying to iron out some wrinkles in spring training, but overall, I think it’s going to be a big success and everybody’s going to like it.”
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