Showalter on the challenge of managing without Diaz
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Nobody has to tell Buck Showalter he’s going to have to manage his butt off this season if he is to get Steve Cohen’s $336 million Mets back to October and beyond. Quite simply it is going to be an Edwin Diaz-less adventure for 162 games.
We were standing on the sidelines watching the Mets going through some pre-game drills at Clover Park the other day and, as it is with every conversation with the Mets manager this spring, it is hard not to bring up the elephant in the room. Showalter is moving on, as he has to, from the devastating turn of events of Diaz tearing the patellar tendon in his knee celebrating at the World Baseball Classic, but the void is immeasurable.
“Look,” he said, “in my opinion, Edwin had the greatest season of any closer in the history of baseball last year. I would challenge anyone to come up with a greater one.”
Certainly, in terms of dominance and value to the team’s success, Diaz’s 2022, in which he was nearly unhittable (1.31 ERA, 118 strikeouts and just 18 walks in 62 innings, 32 saves out of 35 opportunities), Showalter has a valid point. With the Mets holding on to first place most of the season, the vast majority of Diaz’s saves were of the high-leverage variety. For that reason, Cohen made Diaz his top priority last winter, signing him to a record (five-year, $102 million) contract for closers.
“To be honest,” Showalter said, “even before his injury I had already prepared for the fact that he wouldn’t be able to replicate what he did last year.”
As Showalter walked away for a minute to consult with one of his coaches, John Franco, who himself knows a little bit about the value of closers, was standing nearby and had overheard our conversation. “I know what you’re saying,” Franco said. “It’s a whole different thing for a manager when he doesn’t have that safety valve for the ninth inning. He’s gotta manage every game different.”
In all probability, Showalter will be managing with a variety of closers this season, which is why the one-year, $10 million contract to David Robertson, along with the two-year, $14.5 million deal for Adam Ottavino that were scoffed at by some opposing teams as excessive, now loom as important offseason signings. Early speculation has been that the 37-year-old Robertson will get the nod as the principal closer, but Showalter wasn’t ready to go there. As the spring wears down to a close, he is still watching and evaluating a number of closer options, including a couple of interesting much-traveled veterans, 34-year-old lefty Brooks Raley and 29-year-old righty John Curtiss.
“Obviously Robertson gives you an advantage in that, as a righty, he is just as effective against left-handers,” Showalter said, “but we’ll probably operate by ‘lanes.’ ”
By that he presumably meant the righties will stay in their lanes and the lefties in theirs and how the opposing teams’ batting orders stack up in the eighth and ninth innings will dictate how he goes about closing out games.
From the get-go this spring, however, Showalter has been particularly high on the 6-3 Raley, who last year with the Rays set career bests for ERA (2.68), opponents OPS (.226), saves (6) and ranked eighth among AL pitchers in opponents batting average (.188). What most intrigued Showalter when the Mets acquired Raley from the Rays for minor league lefty Keyshawn Askew back in December was his hard contact of only 24.6% of batted balls, according to Statcast.
As for Curtiss, primarily a set-up and middle innings reliever with the Twins, Angels, Marlins and Brewers from 201721, the Mets thought enough of him to sign him to a two-year contract in ’21 knowing he was going to miss all of last year recovering from his second Tommy John surgery.
“He has that ‘it’ factor,” Showalter said, meaning that Curtiss has an air of confidence about his ability in any situation.