Edwin Diaz was the first big free agent off the board this year, signing a five-year, $102 million deal that set a new record for a relief pitcher just hours after free agency truly began.
The happiest person about that? Perhaps the 2022 NL Manager of the Year and Diaz's skipper, Buck Showalter…who is happy for both the Mets AND Diaz.
"When you return from where he was, when you had failure, and you return and had the success that he had – and I think our fans fed off that, they know the toughness they respect that toughness it takes to come through that – usually you don't want to go back there again," Showalter told SNY's Steve Gelbs in a Mets Hot Stove appearance Wednesday.
Diaz wanted to be a Met, and it seems that the Mets wanted Diaz.
"I think what we were drawn to him was the fact that he has shown the toughness to pitch in New York, and come back from things. You gotta have that toughness to pitch here," Showalter said. "And Edwin, he was very adamant about wanting to be here."
Diaz struggled greatly in his first season as a Met, but over the last three years, he has been dominant, posting a 2.27 ERA in 150 1/3 innings and notching 257 strikeouts and 70 saves in those frames.
And perhaps, maybe, the heavy mutual interest led to a little hometown discount?
"All things being equal, and our ownership allowed all things to be equal and maybe then some, I don't know what would've been out there," Showalter said. "Who knows? Maybe we got a deal."
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