Mets have serious issues beyond Edwin Diaz’s closer status

MLB

By Jon Heyman

MIAMI — Mets manager Carlos Mendoza termed struggling star Edwin Diaz’s status as closer “fluid” for now. Which is a nice way of saying his chances of pitching the ninth inning in the near term are under water.

Day 1 of their Mets’ new “mix-and-match” plan to close out games was a success, thanks to 2024 bullpen revelation Reed Garrett saving a 7-3 victory over the Marlins and helping avert disaster — a potential sweep to the fire-selling Marlins.

Meantime, Diaz, who’s nobody’s water boy, showed a vastly improved state of mind on the day after the blowup that brought tears and temporarily cost him the marquee bullpen job.

“I feel good, I feel great,” Diaz told The Post after a bullpen session that gave him hope his comeback may come quicker than imagined.

“I talked to them, and we’re on the same page. I’ll just go to work and get my confidence back and be back in my closing job.”

Diaz sounded hopeful it could be a matter of days, but realistically, he’s going to have to show he can get folks out in lower-leverage situations a time or two or more before he reclaims his spot. Until then, the job will probably fall on Garrett — the journeyman turned savior who’s the best story of the Mets season — veteran Adam Ottavino, who was warming up in case in the ninth inning, and maybe one or two others.

Yep, Timmy Trumpet is on hiatus — at least for today. But the Mets believe it isn’t forever. And it better not be.

“We all believe in [Diaz]. We all know he’s going to be back,” Garrett said. “We all know that he’s elite when he’s right. And we know that we’re going to do everything we can to get him right.”

Their pen situation is far from a disaster thanks to solid backup plans (Garrett whiffed four in two scoreless innings after entering a one-run game). But ultimately though, the Mets all know they need Diaz to be right to have a real chance to reach their goal and make the playoffs.

(And yes, for those asking, I’m not retracting my opinion from a couple days ago that the Mets are playoff-bound — although two losses in three games to the worst-in-MLB Marlins doesn’t help.)

The team does have some serious issues, however, and those are undeniable. It certainly isn’t optimal that they are mixing and matching in multiple spots — not just at closer. Here are a few other areas of concern:

1. They aren’t getting much offense from catcher.

Starting catcher Francisco Alvarez is going for a strength test for his injured left thumb Monday, and if all goes well, he may be only a month or slightly more away. That’s big news for a lineup in need of offense.

For the time being, they will hope to get more offense out of Tomas Nido and Omar Narvaez. Even though Nido was in the minors before Alvarez hurt himself three weeks ago, he’s receiving the slight majority of playing time, which seems like a message to Narvaez.

In any case, the most damage either one has done to date came when Nido inadvertently conked Phillies star Bryce Harper on the bill of his helmet with an errant throw back to the pitcher (Harper missed the next game with a migraine).

2. Third base is a platoon-tryout.

In a twist, Brett Baty played completely different that his scouting report, as he fielded the position well but showed very little power. That’s what led to the second promotion of Mark Vientos, who’s looking like more of a threat. With the offense at issue — they are in the bottom third on all the slash-line categories — Vientos looks like the better bet to play.

3. Jeff McNeil, a former batting champion, is last in the league in barrel percentage.

Both he and Mendoza professed confidence he’s swinging the bat better lately. But he still hasn’t looked anything like the guy who hit well enough to once win a car for his hitting from double-play partner Francisco Lindor. The barrel percentage is 0.7 by the way, which is 166th of 166 MLB qualifiers.

4. Francisco Lindor still isn’t quite himself

He’s playing through illness (more than a quarter of the team is suffering from flu-like symptoms), but Lindor like Pete Alonso plays through almost anything. He said he feels 95 percent now, and even if he’s being optimistic — he’s a naturally sunny fellow, that Mr. Smile moniker is sincere — he did show some positive signs since Mendoza moved him to the leadoff spot a couple days ago.

The Mets scored 16 runs over the weekend, which may be a positive sign. (It may also be that they are playing the Marlins.)

“It’s two days, you know,” Mendoza said. “But the last couple days, I like how it’s going.”

Through illness (J.D. Martinez was out of the lineup Sunday after suffering all weekend) and defeat, the Mets have been able to maintain surprising optimism. There’s still a lot to work out, but I’m staying right there with them on that score.