Edwin Diaz open to drastic change to help Mets after another blown save

The New York Mets relied on Edwin Diaz to return to form as the team's closer and as one of the top relievers in all of baseball. Recently, that hasn't been the case. Before Saturday's game, Diaz had blown three of his past four save opportunities, which was uncharacteristic. Diaz last recorded a save on May 6 against the St. Louis Cardinals. In his last two save opportunities this past Monday and Thursday, Diaz blew them.

On Saturday, the Mets entered the bottom of the ninth inning with a 9-5 lead over the Miami Marlins. This gave Diaz a four-run cushion to record a save. Unfortunately for Diaz, he surrendered an RBI single to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and a game-tying, three-run homer by Josh Bell. With the game tied 9-9, manager Carlos Mendoza pulled Diaz and brought in Jake Diekman, who struck out Jesus Sanchez and Jake Burger to get out of the inning. The Mets went on to lose 10-9.

Diaz spoke to reporters after the game and was asked if he would be open to moving out of the closer's role to help the team win and to help him work out of it. Diaz said he would be open to the move if he likes the plan if approached by Mendoza.

"Yeah, I'm open to everything. I want to help this team win, that's my main thing," said Diaz. "Win games. If they want to talk to me about that and I feel good about it, I'll agree [to] it. I just want to win games."

Edwin Diaz open to moving out of Mets' closer role

As for what's causing his struggles, Diaz believes it's his confidence that is playing a role.

“[It’s] my confidence, right now,” Díaz said, h/t MLB.com's Paige Leckie. “I won’t lie. My confidence, I feel like it’s down right now. I’m trying. I’m making pitches, I’m throwing strikes, I’m trying to do my best to help the team win. … When you’ve got low confidence like I was feeling today a little bit, I was trying to make pitches and to get my clean inning and reinforce my confidence, but that wasn’t [happening] today.”

Diaz sounds like he's on board for the role change in the bullpen. It will all be up to Mendoza to make the decision.

After the game, Mendoza said that as of now, Diaz is still their closer. However, Mendoza says that he will speak with Diaz and his coaching staff about whether they want to put him in "some softer spots to get him going."

Mendoza said he brought in Diaz in the ninth because of the team's four-run lead. That is a comfortable enough cushion for any closer. But Diaz struggled to get anything going. Diaz gave up a double to Vidal Brujan to start the inning. Diaz forced Emmanuel Rivera to pop out in the next at-bat, which seemingly put him on the right track. But then, the RBI single by Chisholm, a single by Bryan De La Cruz, and the three-run homer by Bell clinched Diaz's fourth blown save in his last five opportunities.

After the game, Diaz now holds a 5.50 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP while recording 27 strikeouts and seven walks in 18.0 innings.

Based on the comments by Diaz and Mendoza, this won't be a quick decision to make in terms of removing the closer's title. But it appears that both sides are open to the idea of giving someone else closing opportunities.