Edwin Daz thinks his Mets spring is going in the right direction despite key issue to solve

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets from spring training PORT ST.LUCIE — After a first Grapefruit League outing in which Edwin Díaz gave up a pair of hits — and runs — with scouts noticing some of the same “floating” sliders that hurt him a year ago, even Díaz acknowledged he wasn’t quite right. Three days after that initial outing, Díaz issued consecutive five-pitch walks on Sunday to the first two batters he faced against Washington and then fell behind C.J.

Abrams 3-0. But Díaz recovered to whiff Abrams and then struck out the final two batters he faced, James Wood and Nathaniel Lowe. It left him feeling confident that he was in a good spot with a little over two weeks remaining before Opening Day. The difference in appearances, Díaz said Monday at Clover Park, was in his delivery — which was inconsistent at times last season. “My mechanics were way better [Sunday] than the first game,’’ Díaz said.“I was more to home plate than side to side.” Díaz is coming off a tumultuous season during which he missed time with a right shoulder impingement, and was temporarily removed from the closer role.

That followed a 2023 season in which the right-hander was sidelined throughout by a torn patellar tendon suffered during the World Baseball Classic. While some scouts want to see Díaz keep his delivery consistent before they’re ready to say he’s back, the 30-year-old believes the adjustments he made a year ago — and was able to institute in the middle of his outing on Sunday — give him faith that he’s back. “When I struggled, it was when I went side to side and that happened a lot last year after a year off [because of the knee injury],” Díaz said.“I talked to [pitching coach Jeremy] Hefner and checked the video and I know what I have to do to get better.” The issue for Díaz is that when his mechanics slip, so ...