Noah Syndergaard sharp, Edwin Diaz not as Mets pitchers make their spring training debuts
Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard throws during a spring training workout on Feb. 19 at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Noah Syndergaard and Edwin Diaz, underwhelming at best in 2019 and critical to the Mets’ success in 2020, had drastically different Grapefruit League debuts Wednesday but came away with the same sentiment: That felt good.
Syndergaard cruised through two scoreless innings on 18 pitches in a 4-2 loss to the Astros. He gave up one hit, struck out two and walked none. His slider was sharp and he didn’t think too much on the mound, he said, checking those boxes — his two primary areas of focus heading into the regular season — and getting one day closer to the regular season.
“I felt great,” Syndergaard said. “I was back to a competing mentality as opposed to thinking [about] what parts of my body are doing what on the mound.”
Syndergaard added that his slider was “back to close to the velocity that I wanted,” which is 92-93 mph.
Diaz struggled through a one-inning appearance that required 25 pitches. He gave up three hits — at least two of them hit hard — and two runs and admitted to feeling anxious about pitching a game for the first time this year.
Michael Brantley led off with a single lined to center. Aledmys Diaz followed with an RBI double rocketed over the head of leftfielder Dominic Smith. The Mets righthander retired Kyle Tucker (strikeout swinging) and Nick Tanielu (flyout to right) before Dustin Garneau nicked him for another RBI double, on a grounder down the leftfield line. Jack Mayfield grounded out to Diaz to end the inning.
Mets pitcher Edwin Diaz throws during a spring training workout on Feb. 16 at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
The issue, Diaz said, was an inability to locate his fastball.
“I threw a lot of sliders today that I felt were really good, but it’s really trying to get the fastball, the command of the fastball,” he said. “I left a couple in the middle and I want to be able to paint the corners with that fastball.”
Added manager Luis Rojas: “I thought he missed spots. I thought he wanted to elevate and missed down. I thought the slider was really good, maybe one backed up, but every single other one I think he did finish.”
Rojas has not named a closer, but Diaz is one option. He fell out of that full-time role last year as he struggled with a 5.59 ERA and 1.38 WHIP.
Heading into his second season with the Mets, Diaz said he expects better — starting now.
“I expect my results to be good this spring training,” Diaz said. “Yeah, spring training is for working on things, but it’s also the results. I care about the results a lot. So I go out there and I try to get the best results possible.”
