Dave Roberts didn’t sugarcoat it — but he didn’t pull the plug either. Despite Edwin Díaz posting an 11.00 ERA and 2.44 WHIP since returning from elbow surgery, the Dodgers manager said on August 8 that he doesn’t see a clear-cut alternative for the closer role. The comment came one day after Díaz surrendered a walk-off home run to the Arizona Diamondbacks, extending Los Angeles’s losing streak to seven straight games.
Roberts’s exact words, captured by reporter Adrian Medina, said it all: «Honestly, you also have to look at the options. The way that some of these guys are throwing, they’re not throwing great either… I just don’t think there’s a clear-cut alternative.»
That’s not a vote of confidence. It’s something more uncomfortable — an admission that the entire bullpen is struggling, and that swapping Díaz out of the ninth doesn’t actually fix anything. Pragmatism dressed up as loyalty.
The contract, the comeback, and a slider that went missing
Díaz arrived in Los Angeles last December on a three-year, $69 million deal — the highest average annual value ($23M per year) ever paid to a reliever in MLB history. The expectation was straightforward: the Naguabo, Puerto Rico native would lock down games as the Dodgers chased a third straight title. He had been absolutely dominant in 2025 with the Mets: 1.63 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, and 28 saves in 31 opportunities across 66.1 innings.
The 2026 season lasted exactly seven appearances. On April 19, Díaz underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his right elbow, with a three-month recovery timeline. The warning signs had already been there: his fastball had dropped from 97.2 mph in 2025 to 95.8 mph, and his slider — the pitch that makes him one of the toughest relievers in the game — wasn’t right.
He came back in late July with his velocity nearly recovered, sitting around 96.9 mph, and his first outing looked promising. Then the slider command vanished. In nine innings since returning, he’s given up two home runs in four appearances and opposing hitters are barreling him up at an average exit velocity of 90.5 mph — a sign that hard contact isn’t a fluke, it’s a pattern.
Díaz himself has been candid: he doesn’t understand why the slider keeps ending up over the middle of the plate in games when everything feels fine in practice.
The walk-off on August 7 against Arizona was the breaking point. The Dodgers fell to their seventh consecutive loss — their first such streak since July 2025 and only the second since 2018. Over a brutal 9-losses-in-11-games stretch, the team was outscored 46–25.
The elephant in the bullpen: Tanner Scott is right there
Here’s the paradox Roberts danced around: there is a reliever in that bullpen who has been closing games effectively. Tanner Scott — signed to a four-year, $72 million deal in 2024 — had a rough 2025 (4.74 ERA, 10 blown saves in 33 opportunities, including postseason meltdowns). In 2026 he’s bounced back sharply: 2.40 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, and 15 saves in 17 opportunities across 41.1 innings. Scott handled the ninth inning for nearly the three months Díaz was out.
So the question Roberts avoided answering directly is this: if Scott is working and Díaz isn’t, why is Díaz still closing?
The implicit answer seems to be that roles were established in spring training, and reshuffling them in August — mid-skid — could do more damage to the bullpen’s chemistry than riding it out. It’s a bet. With the Dodgers still sitting 7.5 games up in the NL West, there’s time for Díaz to find that slider again. But the clock is ticking.
