Last year, when the New York Mets traded prized prospects Jarred Kelenic, Justin Dunn, and Gerson Bautista along with reliever Anthony Swarzak and slugger Jay Bruce in exchange for second baseman Robinson Cano and highly-regarded relief ace Edwin Diaz, they envisioned the latter as the undisputed closer and a shutdown arm late in games.
That was the idea. However, the first year of the Diaz era didn’t go so well in Queens. After a shiny 1.96 ERA in 2018, he regressed to a 5.