Mets' Buck Showalter not ready to name Edwin Diaz's replacement
Edwin Diaz sits after getting injured after a World Baseball Classic Pool D game against the Dominican Republic on Wednesday night. Diaz had surgery on his knee on Thursday, March 16, 2023 and will be out for the season. Credit: EPA-EFE/Shutterstock/Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Buck Showalter said on Thursday that he was too focused on Edwin Diaz’s well-being to start planning who will replace the injured righthander as the Mets’ closer.
Showalter said the dizzying time since Diaz suffered a likely season-ending tear of the patellar tendon in his right knee during a celebration at the World Baseball Classic has been spent thinking about Diaz’s needs.
The most obvious candidate to replace Diaz is David Robertson, who has 157 career saves.
“I’m not going to go committing to that less than 24 hours after it happened,” Showalter said. “He’s certainly a guy that we’re glad we added before this. So he’s certainly one of the options that we’ll have down there.”
Robertson, who had 20 saves combined for the Cubs and Phillies in 2022, said he has no expectations as he, too, was just digesting the Diaz news.
“I didn’t know how bad it was [Wednesday] night. Now we know,” said Robertson, who threw a scoreless inning at Washington on Thursday in his second outing of spring training. “It’s unfortunate. Accidents happen.”
Senga sharp in return
One bright spot on Thursday was the return of Kodai Senga, who was scratched from his last start because of tendinitis in his right index finger.
Senga threw three innings (47 pitches) against Washington, allowed one run and three hits and struck out five.
He touched 97 mph and said he didn’t throw any of his famous ghost splitters because he wanted to work on his other off-speed stuff.
Senga struck out the side in his final inning, fanning the top of the Nationals’ order, Lane Thomas, Dominic Smith and Alex Call.
“It’s all good,” Senga said about his finger through an interpreter.
About his outing in general, he said in English, “Very good.”
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
