The New York Mets were the team most affected by injuries during the World Baseball Classic. Closer Edwin Diaz suffered a season-ending knee injury that caused some panic around New York.
Diaz picked up 32 saves for the second-straight season last year and did so with a sparkling 1.31 ERA and 0.84 WHIP. He struck out a whopping 118 batters in just 62 innings. Losing a guy like that will be a blow to any team, but the Mets may be built to withstand that impact.
The Mets signed David Robertson this offseason and he picked up the first save of the season with a perfect ninth inning on Opening Day. It was a good reminder of the talent that remains in the New York bullpen.
WFAN’s Evan Roberts of the Audacy Original Podcast “Rico Brogna” talked about the Mets’ Opening Day win and reminded everyone that they still have a pretty good bullpen even without Diaz.
“Edwin Diaz last year was the first closer in the history of my life who not only saved a lot of games but did it stress-free. Even good Armando Benitez didn’t do it stress-free. Billy Wagner didn’t do it stress-free,” Roberts exclaimed (3:43 in player above). “And for David Robertson to strike out Cooper and strike out the poster guy of ‘MLB The Show’ Jazz Chisholm and then get Jorge Soler to pop up, chef’s kiss to David Robertson.”
Of course, the Marlins don’t exactly have an intimidating lineup but getting three scoreless innings while allowing just one hit (in the seventh) from the bullpen is impressive. Robertson closed it out with the Mets’ 11th and 12th strikeouts of the game.
“He did an absolutely fantastic job. My dad’s texting me ‘Who needs Edwin Diaz?’” Roberts laughed. “And that’s not a slight on Edwin Diaz, I think it’s a reminder – and I said this when Edwin got hurt – the advantage that we had is gone. But can the Mets still have a really good bullpen? Yeah, of course they can.”
Roberts then brought up the fact that many teams around the league don’t have bullpens that are much better than the Mets. Diaz would’ve been the fortifying weapon to lock things down, but that doesn’t mean the Mets’ bullpen is now in shambles.
“What we lost was an advantage. That’s gone,” he said. “But can David Robertson and Brooks Raley and Drew Smith and the guys we didn’t even see (Thursday), John Curtiss and Adam Ottavino, can they be a part of a strength and a good bullpen? Yeah. Why not? At least for one day, they got off to a really good start.”
Thursday's save was the 158th in Robertson's career. He's closed out games in New York before with a 39-save season for the Yankees back in 2014.
It was only one game but Opening Day can set the tone for the opening weekend and first few weeks of the season. Getting a win out of the gates – especially with a strong performance from the bullpen – was important for the Mets.
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