Edwin Díaz Is Headed for Surgery, Shaking up Dodgers Bullpen

When the Dodgers signed Edwin Díaz to a three-year, $69 million deal last December, it marked the second straight winter that they paid top dollar for a free agent closer, after they’d inked Tanner Scott to a four-year, $72 million deal in January 2025. That they double-dipped in such fashion was both a particularly ostentatious display of their purchasing power and an acknowledgement that even the best relievers can be fickle and fragile. Scott scuffled throughout last season while also missing time due to multiple injuries, and ultimately spent October as a bystander as the Dodgers cobbled together a makeshift late-game bullpen and won their second consecutive championship. Now, after struggling with his velocity and command, Díaz has also gone down with an injury. On Monday, one day after failing to retire any of the four Rockies he faced, he was placed on the 15-day injured list due to loose bodies in his right elbow. He is set to undergo arthroscopic surgery on Wednesday to have them removed.

Even in small-sample season, the 32-year-old Díaz’s numbers tell enough of a story to suggest that something is amiss. He’s allowed seven runs in six innings for a 10.50 ERA, accompanied by a 4.96 FIP and a 4.39 xERA. His 15.2% differential between his 30.3% strikeout rate and 15.2% walk rate is just over half of his 29.8% differential last year. His four-seam fastball has averaged just 95.7 mph, down from last year’s average of 97.2 mph while with the Mets, for whom he posted a 1.63 ERA and a 2.28 FIP in 66 1/3 innings. His average arm angle has dropped, changing the movement profiles of both his four-seamer and slider:

Relative to last season, Díaz has lost over two and a half inches of horizontal run on his fastball and nearly an inch of cut on his slider, which itself is one mile per hour slower, as well. Neither pitch has fooled hitters to nearly the same degree as before, and his overall swinging strike rate has dropped from 17.3% in 2024 and 18.0% last year to 9.1% this season.

Though his velocity was already down relative to past seasons, Díaz began his Dodgers career by converting each of his first four save chances without being scored on; in the middle of that stretch, he did allow a run in a non-save situation against the Guardians on March 31. His trouble really showed up in his sixth appearance, on April 10 against the Rangers in Los Angeles. He retired just three of the eight batters he faced, blowing a 7-4 lead by allowing three runs on four hits, a stolen base, and an intentional walk, with Evan Carter’s two-run homer the big blow. The Dodgers managed to win 8-7 when Max Muncy hit a walk-off home run, his third dinger of the night.

The next day, Dodgers manger Dave Roberts said the team was monitoring Díaz’s four-seam fastball velocity, which was down to an average of 95.5 mph against the Rangers. On April 12, Roberts said that while Díaz hadn’t reported any physical issues, he was being treated as “day to day.” He didn’t pitch again until Sunday, with Alex Vesia converting the team’s two save opportunities in between, on April 11 and 14; Díaz was unavailable in the latter game because Los Angeles had him throw a bullpen session prior to returning to action.

When Díaz finally returned to game action on Sunday at Coors Field, it was in a non-save situation; the Rockies led 6-4 in the eighth inning, and from there they broke things open. Willi Castro hit Díaz’s first pitch, a 95.8-mph four-seamer just below the zone, to right field for a single, then stole second base as Kyle Karros refused to chase any of the four sliders buried in the dirt. After missing low with a 94.8-mph four-seamer, Díaz dialed it up to 97.1 mph — his fastest pitch since April 7 — only to have Brenton Doyle lay down a perfect bunt toward third base; he was safe at first, loading the bases.

Facing Edouard Julien, Díaz missed low with a four-seamer clocked at just 92.8 mph, which set off some alarms, as he threw only three slower fastballs last year, all in April. He fell behind 3-1 before Julien slapped a 94.5-mph fastball on the inner edge of the zone into right field for a two-run single. Roberts gave Díaz the hook in favor of Kyle Hurt, who induced Mickey Moniak to ground into a forceout, scoring Doyle and further ballooning Díaz’s ERA.

“We all saw the stuff last night, and it sent up red flags,” Roberts said on Monday afternoon prior to the team’s series finale. “After the game, he had a conversation with our training staff and felt that he had some elbow discomfort.” The team sent the closer for an MRI, which revealed bone chips in his elbow but no ligament damage — a familiar diagnosis for Roberts, who himself had bone chips removed from his elbow in 2008, his final season in the majors. “Loose bodies are asymptomatic until they’re not, so I can relate to what he was going through,” the manager told reporters.

Díaz is slated to undergo surgery on Wednesday, and won’t return until some time in the second half of the season, meaning that he’ll miss at least three months. Considering the alternatives, that’s comparatively good news; while setbacks in rehab can happen, this isn’t a strain or a sprain that can linger or worsen, or a season-ending injury. As the Dodgers showed last year when it came to their rotation, the priority is being available in October, not May or June.

Of course, last season the Dodgers had more than their share of drama when it came to getting their relievers to October, a major reason why they signed Díaz to be their first traditional closer since the departure of Kenley Jansen after the 2021 season. Scott pitched to a 4.74 ERA and a 4.70 FIP in 57 innings and not only missed a month due to elbow inflammation, but was left off the postseason roster after undergoing what was termed “a lower-body abscess procedure.” Kirby Yates, whom the team signed to a one-year, $13 million deal shortly after adding Scott, pitched poorly and made three trips to the IL, the last of which, for a recurrent right hamstring strain, kept him off the postseason roster, too. Blake Treinen, whom the team had re-signed to a two-year, $22 million deal in December 2024, put up a 9.64 ERA and a 6.16 FIP in 9 1/3 innings in September, and remained erratic in October, yielding a 6.75 ERA (but a 2.39 FIP) in 5 1/3 innings. With Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips, and Brock Stewart all also sidelined, the Dodgers used starters Emmet Sheehan and Roki Sasaki out of the bullpen multiple times in the postseason with mixed results, then called upon A-list starters Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto during an epic World Series against the Blue Jays.

Though Roberts has declined to anoint a single pitcher as his ninth-inning guy in Díaz’s absence, a few of the remaining relievers have experience closing, but while lefties Vesia and Scott both have dominated in their limited duty, the righty Treinen has remained erratic. Vesia, who has 15 saves in his career and two this year, is the only Dodger to record a save this season besides Díaz. He’s allowed just two hits in 8 2/3 scoreless innings so far, posting a 1.86 FIP, a 32.3% strikeout rate, and a 9.7% walk rate. Scott, who has 78 career saves, including 23 for the Dodgers last year, has pitched to a 1.04 ERA and a 2.78 FIP in 8 2/3 innings. His command is back; he has yet to walk a batter so far and has struck out 26.7% of those he’s faced. Treinen, who has 82 career saves, has put up a 4.05 ERA and a 4.63 FIP in 6 2/3 innings while walking 10.0% of hitters and striking out just 20.0% of them.

As for the other righties the Dodgers have used — Hurt, Ben Casparius, Edgardo Henriquez, and Will Klein — they’re largely untested in higher-leverage duty. The three besides Casparius have combined for just 70 1/3 innings in the majors, most of them in low-leverage situations. Casparius, who has totaled 90 2/3 innings in the bigs, allowed five runs in 4 2/3 innings before landing on the IL last week due to shoulder inflammation. Most notable for throwing five scoreless innings in the World Series, including the last four in the 18-inning epic Game 3, Klein is probably the top candidate to move into the circle of trust in Díaz’s absence, at least in the near term. He has a 2.89 ERA and a 2.00 FIP with a 25.0% strikeout rate in 9 2/3 innings. Righty Chayce McDermott, recently acquired in a minor trade with the Orioles, is on the 40-man roster but has just 12 2/3 innings of major league experience and a 12.27 ERA in that limited time. Among the more familiar righties on the 40, both Landon Knack and Bobby Miller are injured, with the former recovering from an intercostal strain and the latter on the 60-day IL due to shoulder soreness.

Among the injured, Stewart, who underwent shoulder debridement surgery in late September, is the closest to returning, as he began a minor league rehab assignment last week. Still, the Dodgers anticipate he’ll need close to the maximum of 30 days to build up his arm strength. While general manager Brandon Gomes said that Brusdar Graterol is “back up to bazooka levels” in terms of his velocity, he threw just 7 1/3 innings in the majors in 2024 before undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum, and didn’t take the mound in a minor league game last year; he’ll also need a lengthy buildup. The anticipated mid-May return of Snell from a bout of shoulder inflammation could bump a starter from the team’s six-man rotation to the bullpen, but obviously it won’t be Yamamoto, Glasnow, or Shohei Ohtani, which narrows the list. As to whether the Dodgers would consider moving Sasaki back there given his continued control issues, Gomes offered only a one-word answer on Monday: “No.” Lefty Justin Wrobleski has more bullpen experience than Sheehan, but he’s coming off back-to-back strong starts, while Sheehan has been touched for a 5.85 ERA and a 5.13 FIP in 20 innings as a starter, suggesting the righty is the more likely one to move to the bullpen, even though he struggled as a reliever last fall. In one capacity or another, he’ll need to post better results, particularly if River Ryan and/or Gavin Stone emerge as rotation options following their respective rehabs from surgery, though neither of them is close to returning.

As we’ve seen with the Dodgers time and again, there’s only so much chicken-counting to be done when it comes to their pitching. Their willingness to tolerate higher-risk pitchers means that they’re often dealing with injuries or navigating workload concerns. When guys are healthy, they’ll get their shots, and so while the loss of Díaz rates as a significant inconvenience, it’s also somebody else’s opportunity to step up.