Mets' Justin Verlander, Brandon Nimmo react to Edwin Diaz injury blow

New York Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo and ace Justin Verlander both reacted to closer Edwin Diaz going down with what will likely be a season-ending knee injury. 

"When I saw him on the ground, I thought, 'No, no, no. This can't be happening,'" Nimmo said about watching Wednesday's developments, per Ryan Chichester of Audacy. "...Obviously felt bad about it for a while, and I feel terrible for Edwin. He has so much charisma around him and weight to him when he comes onto the field, and the trumpets are blaring. We enjoyed the heck out of it last year and what he did." 

The Mets confirmed Thursday that Diaz suffered a right patellar tendon tear while he celebrated helping Puerto Rico earn a 5-2 win over the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic Wednesday night. He will require surgery and will almost certainly miss the entire 2023 MLB campaign. 

"One of the best closers in baseball, if not the best," Verlander said of his Mets teammate. "Losing that is not easy. I don’t think any team has gone through an entire season and hasn’t had some sort of major blow…it’s tough to have it at this time of the season when optimism is so high and everyone’s ready to go…Hopefully, at the end of the year, we can be standing there victorious and Edwin can be up there with us." 

Nimmo, Diaz and Verlander all were set to be massive parts of a Mets squad hoping to compete for more than a playoff berth. While Nimmo stayed with the Mets via an eight-year contract reportedly worth $162M, Diaz remained with the organization by putting pen to paper on a five-year, $102M deal in November. New York signed Verlander to a two-year, $86.66M contract that reportedly includes a vesting third-year option worth $35M in December. 

Both Nimmo and Verlander declined opportunities to participate in this year's World Baseball Classic, and both recently openly discussed chasing a World Series with the Mets this season. Despite all that, Nimmo defended Diaz for taking part in the WBC.

"No. This happens all the time," Nimmo remarked. "It's going to happen, it's playing games at a high level. The freak part of this is that it happened during the celebration." 

As mentioned by Dan Mennella of Audacy Sports, so-called "baseball Twitter" has been debating the existence of the WBC since Diaz fell to the ground Wednesday night. Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout and Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts vocally backed the tournament despite Diaz's injury, but their words will mean little to Mets fans ahead of the weekend.