Edwin Diaz suffers a potentially serious leg injury at the World Baseball Classic
The circle of Puerto Rican stars who had gathered to celebrate stopped bobbing. Francisco Lindor and Edwin’s brother Alexis fell to their knees. A few teammates frantically waved at the coaches, who were too busy celebrating themselves to notice right away. And in the middle of the throng, out of sight of TV cameras and fans, sat the best baseball player who was closer, aware that something had gone very wrong with his right leg.
What exactly happened to Diaz is unclear. He didn’t turn to reporters after the game in what history might forget today was an action-packed 5-2 win that propelled Puerto Rico to the WBC Quarterfinals.
His manager, Yadier Molina, told reporters he thinks the problem is Diaz’s right knee, but he has no news yet.
“I hugged our coaches on the dugout,” said Molina. “Then when we looked up, Edwin was on the ground. I did not know it. I didn’t know how to act, I didn’t know how – what to say. I mean, I didn’t know.”
Not long after Molina spoke, the New York Mets — who made Diaz the highest-paid emergency responder in history that offseason when they signed him to a five-year, $102 million contract — issued a statement saying Diaz had injured himself at the celebration and he would undergo more imaging Thursday. But the mood in the clubhouse of the visitors in the LoanDepot Park was not only pessimistic. It was downright gloomy.
“Easy,” said Puerto Rico outfielder Kiké Hernandez, red-eyed when later asked how he would describe the aftermath at the Puerto Rico clubhouse. Anyone who’s been anywhere near the Puerto Rican players who dyed their hair blonde in solidarity and who jumped out of the dugout at every big game knows how unlikely that description is for this group.
“As excited as we were about the game and all of that, it’s one of our brothers and some of us grew up together and all of that,” Hernandez said. “It’s really easy to put the game aside and worry about us as humans. So it definitely doesn’t feel like we’re just going to beat the Dominican Republic to go through.”
Instead, the post-game scene outside the Puerto Rico clubhouse was something that bordered on dystopia. Mets senior communications director Zach Weber, translator Alan Suriel and head of major league operations Liz Benn jogged into the clubhouse shortly after the team left the field, faces tight with concern. Paramedics arrived shortly thereafter and were directed to the correct clubhouse. Diaz’ brother Alexis walked around the hall in tears. His parents were escorted into and out of the clubhouse. They too burst into tears.
“Obviously other than that he’s the best closer in the game right now and he’s a huge part of this team,” Hernandez said.
“He’s just a guy who, I’m just going to post it like he has a really big bank account, but his heart is way bigger than his bank account,” he added. “He’s one of the really special people that we have in this clubhouse.”
Diaz, 28, is baseball’s most dominant closer. He faced 235 batters in 2022 and knocked out 118 of them. Not only was he a crucial part of Puerto Rico’s quest for his first WBC title this weekend, but he was also a crucial part of the Mets’ quest for a World Series championship. And suddenly, seconds after he froze Teoscar Hernandez with a front door pusher to end one of the most defining games of his baseball life, his immediate baseball future seemed uncertain.
“That is God’s will. If something is going to happen, it will happen. celebrations [have] Has existed since I was born,” Molina told reporters via MLB translation after the game. “It is God’s will.”
This is the fifth iteration of the WBC, and for years Major League Baseball has tried to market the event as a must-attend event for baseball fans around the world. In the past few years, it has sometimes felt forced.
But what makes Diaz’s injury so harrowing was the emotion of what happened beforehand, from Dominican fans waving flags and Puerto Rican fans serenading their stars, from players flying around the bases and after the end of the innings bounced off the field.
Big league benches don’t usually clear third-inning homers, not even in October, but Puerto Rico’s did. Manny Machado doesn’t often look sad, but that’s exactly what he looked like after ending up in a rally-killing doubles game with bases loaded in the fifth. That was the Dominican Republic’s best chance of a comeback, especially with Diaz threatening in ninth place.
And up until the moment Puerto Rico started celebrating, the story of the night was his overwhelming victory in front of a sold-out crowd of 36,025 at LoanDepot Park – perhaps the greatest testament to the tournament’s importance considering the Marlins are leaving can do entire regular-season homestands without drawing as many. But instead of advancing to the quarterfinals this weekend, Puerto Rico was grounded by a gruesome twist of baseball fate — and a very important right knee — that could keep the sport’s best closer to the hill for some time.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/03/16/edwin-diaz-world-baseball-classic/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_homepage Edwin Diaz suffers a potentially serious leg injury at the World Baseball Classic
