#Mets’ Edwin Diaz believes he’s ‘capable of being a closer’

Edwin Diaz insists he is not focused on his role in the Mets bullpen.

But the reliever, who served as the Mets’ closer for most of last year before losing the job late, believes he has made a case during spring training 2.0 for reclaiming the job this season.

“I think I’ve proved in this second spring training that I put in the work and I’m capable of being a closer,” Diaz said through an interpreter Wednesday at Citi Field, where the Mets held a workout ahead of Friday’s opener against the Braves. “That’s the way I prepare myself, but I’m not solely focusing on it. I don’t care if it’s the eighth or ninth inning, whenever they tell me to come in, I’m going to come in and do my job.”

In order to do that more effectively than he did in 2019, Diaz will need to rein in his command. It often went missing in his first season with the Mets, as he left too many pitches over the plate and gave up 15 home runs, as his ERA ballooned to 5.59.

Seth Lugo and Justin Wilson closed out games late last season and Lugo could be a multi-inning option to do the same again this year. But Diaz is confident he has addressed his control issues heading into Friday.

“I think I was able to learn more about the strike zone this offseason and work on commanding my pitches in different ways,” Diaz said. “When [pitching coach Jeremy] Hefner came down to Puerto Rico to work with me, we had a lot of intense conversations about how they expected me to perform. Once I started taking that plan, I came into the first camp in tremendous shape with the ability to control my pitches the way I want to. I continued to do that in this camp now.”

After Diaz struck out the side in Tuesday’s intrasquad scrimmage in his final tuneup before Opening Day, manager Luis Rojas spoke about the 26-year-old getting better extension on his slider. Diaz said he thinks he has become more consistent with both his slider and fastball and has a plan of attack for what he hopes is a bounce-back season.

“I have tremendous confidence in both pitches that I have,” he said. “If I’m able to dominate and overpower with the fastball, I’m not going to go away from the game plan. But when I feel that a hitter can actually catch up with my fastball, then that’s when I start to throw different pitches to try to get him out.”