![]() Raw earned-run average doesn’t quite capture it, as Díaz’s 1.39 figure is of course excellent but does not even lead the league this year. But in a vacuum, Díaz in the first four months of the 2022 season has arguably been the most dominant pitcher in Major League Baseball’s history. That Rivera and Hoffman managed such longevity (19 seasons for Rivera, 18 for Hoffman) is why they were so special. Nothing lasts forever, and in the life of a closer, greatness can last about 13 seconds. In yet another feat, he even makes it hard not to feel fuzzy about the Mets. There will never be another Rivera, but at least in the entrance music department, Díaz has given Flushing a great answer to the Bronx legend. He is intoxicating to watch and, in a different way, intoxicating to try to hit. In another way, he is the opposite of a throwback, because there have been very few pitchers who can approximate what Díaz has been doing in 2022. In one way, Díaz harkens back to a time of cult-hero closers who became their own baseball brands on the strength of not just performance, but vibes. The whole experience is enamoring, both because of what’s old and what’s new about it. Thousands of fans hold up their phone cameras and clap along, united by great brass and the knowledge that they are about to watch a world-class artist whose brushes are a wipeout slider and a 99-mile-per-hour fastball. Met mime into their own trumpets as they stand on top of a dugout. I cannot imagine the shivers it must create in person. It is an emotional event to watch a Díaz entrance at Citi Field on one’s phone. They are the trumpets of “Narco,” by Blasterjaxx & Timmy Trumpet, and they herald that it is time to watch Díaz stroll to the mound in Queens: When you hear the trumpets, a Mets fan might tell you, it is already over. A closer entrance in a tie game in the eighth inning, for instance, is less cool than when a guy is about to slam the door altogether with three outs.Įnter Edwin Díaz, the New York Mets fireballer who is leading a one-man revival of the closer entrance revolution and, as a bonus, putting together one of the great relief seasons of all time. Managers have come to realize that they should oftentimes deploy their best arms in moments other than conventional save situations. Plus, times change, and pitcher usage shifts with it. ![]() There are only so many Riveras and Hoffmans, and it was a historic anomaly to have the two of them and their entrance music in concurrent heydays. Great relievers haven’t gone anywhere, but until recent days, it had become reasonable to wonder if the iconic entrance were a fading art form. ![]()
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