Triumph quickly turned into heartbreak for Edwin Díaz after Puerto Rico’s upset over the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic, and it was even more emotional for one of his New York Mets teammates.
Díaz suffered a full-thickness tear in his patellar tendon while celebrating Puerto Rico’s WBC win on March 15. He underwent surgery days later, and he likely will be out for the 2023 Major League Baseball season.
Francisco Lindor initially did not know who went down during the celebration, until he saw “the cleats with the trumpets,” according to the New York Post’s Joel Sherman.
“It was heartbreaking,” Lindor said Monday night after his first game back with the Mets, per Sherman. “I never knew I loved Edwin so much until I couldn’t stop crying. And that’s when I realized I loved Edwin a lot. It’s one of those moments that you wish you could go back and kind of do it in slow motion that way no one goes through that. It broke my heart. It did not feel good. Edwin kind of calmed the team a little bit. He talked to us after the game. It was a very, very sad clubhouse.”
Lindor said he cried on the field, in the clubhouse and back at the hotel, according to Sherman.
Díaz’s injury, and Jose Altuve’s injury in Venezuela’s game against the United States on Saturday, which will take him out for two months, created concern over MLB players’ participation in the tournament.
But Lindor affirmed to the New York Post that representing your country is a huge honor for many players, and injuries obviously are never welcomed.
The Mets will have to adjust without Díaz, who signed a record contract for a relief pitcher this past offseason. And it would not be surprising if Lindor and New York have gained extra motivation after Díaz’s injury.
