Edwin Díaz had about as good a contract year as a closer can ask for in 2022 -- a 1.31 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, and 32 saves for a Mets team that won 101 games. He also snagged an All-Star Game selection and a trip to the postseason. He has turned that amazing season into a five-year, $102 million deal to return to the Mets.

Here's what you need to know about Díaz:

FAST FACTS
Birthdate: March 22, 1994 (Age 29 in 2023)
Primary position: RP
Height/weight: 6-foot-3, 165 pounds
Bats/throws: Right/right
Place of birth: Naguabo, Puerto Rico
School(s): Caguas Military Academy (PR)
Drafted: 3rd round (98th), 2012, by Mariners
MLB debut: June 6, 2016
Qualifying offer: Eligible to receive one

THE NUMBERS
2022: 3-1, 1.31 ERA (297 ERA+), 118 K, 3.2 WAR* in 62 IP
Career: 16-29, 2.93 ERA (139 ERA+), 657 K, 10.4 WAR in 399 1/3 
*Per Baseball-Reference

STAT TO KNOW
Díaz struck out 118 batters in 2022, good for an astronomical 17.1 strikeouts per nine innings. That's the second-highest K/9 rate ever posted by a relief pitcher with at least 50 innings, trailing only Aroldis Chapman's 17.7 in 2014.

QUESTION MARK
It’s notoriously difficult to maintain consistency as a reliever, and it’s hardly unheard of for a closer to follow up a stellar year with a rough one. Díaz himself has seen it happen before. The Mets famously acquired him after he saved 57 games for the 2018 Mariners, only to have his ERA balloon from 1.96 to 5.59 in his first season in New York. Obviously, this isn’t the same situation – Díaz was a 25-year-old adjusting to a new league in 2019 – but he does have a history of oscillating between brilliant and average.

Díaz's ERA+, since 2018:
2018: 208
2019: 74
2020: 246
2021: 117
2022: 297
100 = MLB average

His slider is one of the best pitches in baseball
We're not even talking "among relievers" -- Díaz's slider was tied for 5th-most effective pitch by run value (-22 runs) in 2022. Run value is a cumulative stat, so the leaderboard is generally dominated by starters. Case in point, Néstor Cortes Jr. and Carlos Rodón's four-seamers were also worth -22 runs, and just two other relievers had a pitch with a run value of -20 or better in 2022.

He was close to untouchable in 2022
Díaz was the king of the swing-and-miss in 2022, but it went far beyond wipeout sliders. Opposing batters whiffed at 36.4% of pitches he threw in the zone, the third-highest rate by any pitcher in a season since 2015 (minimum 250 swings induced on in-zone pitches) and a little more than twice the rate of the league at large (17.8%).

He’s joined an exclusive club
For two Major Leaguers to come from one family is rare enough – for both of them to become elite relievers is even more unusual. Díaz’s younger brother, Alexis, made his debut with the Reds in April, and in the midst of a dazzling season of his own, the pair made a bit of history together. On May 17, Edwin notched his ninth save of the season, and hours later, Alexis was credited with his first career save, making them just the third set of brothers to record saves on the same day, and the first since Todd and Tim Worrell did it on June 13, 1997.

He's responsible for baseball's latest craze
You've probably heard about "Narco" by now, the entrance music that became iconic over the course of Díaz’s incredible season. So important was it as a victory anthem that the Mets hosted Timmy Trumpet, one of the musicians behind the song, at Citi Field, where he threw out the first pitch and later performed when Díaz entered the game.

Believe it or not, despite it only grabbing national attention in recent months, the choice in song goes all the way back to 2018. Díaz didn't use it during his tough 2019 season and re-adopted it for 2020, hoping that doing everything as he had in his final season in Seattle would help him regain his form. If you ask him, it did.