Diaz? Nuts!

Hat tip to SoSG Nomo for that headline.

After foolishly throwing away money with long-term deals to relievers who completely bombed in 2025, the Dodgers have gone out and landed closer Edwin Diaz (three years, $69M).

The Los Angeles Dodgers got the best closer on the free agent market Tuesday, reaching a three-year, $69 million deal with former New York Mets reliever Edwin Diaz, sources told ESPN's Jeff Passan and Jorge Castillo on Tuesday.

The deal by the Dodgers, who were targeting bullpen help this winter, set an average annual value record for a relief pitcher.

Diaz, a three-time All-Star, logged a 1.63 ERA and converted 28 of 31 save chances for the Mets last season. With an elite combination of a high-velocity fastball and vicious slider, Diaz, 31, has posted high strikeout rates throughout his career. In 2025, Diaz struck out 98 in 66⅓ innings while walking just 14 batters.

The Dodgers went into the offseason with a clear need in the back end of the bullpen after their relievers combined for a 4.27 ERA and blew 27 saves, tied for the seventh most in the majors. The state of their bullpen was so bad heading into October that the Dodgers used their starting-pitching depth to supplement it, transitioning Roki Sasaki to closer while using the likes of Emmet Sheehan, Justin Wrobleski and, at times, Tyler Glasnow in relief roles.

Diaz now solidifies the ninth inning, with Tanner Scott, who the Dodgers hope will bounce back from a disastrous first season in L.A., lined up as his setup man. The likes of Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen, Anthony Banda and Brusdar Graterol, the latter of whom is coming back from shoulder surgery, headline what the organization believes to be a deep crop of relievers.

Initial assessments are pretty positive, probably stemming from the recency of watching the Dodgers' bullpen this postseason:

ESPN's Bradford Doolittle: Grade: A

It's a bad idea to sign a relief pitcher to a long-term contract. But it's not a bad idea to sign Edwin Diaz to a long-term contract, and it's especially not a bad idea for the Los Angeles Dodgers to do so.

You could get really cynical or optimistic about this -- whether you're a Dodgers fan or not. The Dodgers' bullpen plan a year ago was to stock the roster with a ridiculous list of big-name relievers who had all worked in the closing role for various teams. The depth chart was eye-popping: Blake Treinen, Tanner Scott, Evan Phillips, Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech. The plan did not work. Each of those pitchers struggled with injuries, performance or both.

That being the base, you could point at the Diaz signing as an expression of Dodger hubris: They did not learn the most basic of bullpen-building lessons, that there is no such thing as certainty with that position group, no matter how much money you spend on it. Of that quintet, only Scott and Treinen remain on the roster.

So, sure, any and every reliever is a risk, but for the Dodgers, Diaz is more than worth it. Few relievers truly separate themselves from the pack and maintain their status for an extended period of time. Diaz is one of them, and this deal -- strange as it is to say about a reliever -- is a bargain, even if the $23 million average annual value is a record for a bullpenner.

Doolittle goes on to point out the Dodgers got a shorter term than expected--three years--which other less-resourced teams might not have been able to execute. (Tanner Scott's disastrous deal, for example, was for four years.)

But this Diaz deal is not without concern, as MLB Trade Rumors pointed out:

That’s not to say there aren’t any red flags at all with regard to Diaz. His average fastball velocity has dipped in two consecutive seasons. While this past season’s average of 97.2 mph was still well above average, it’s also two miles per hour shy of Diaz’s 2022 peak. He also gave up considerably more hard contact. Diaz’s 88.5 mph average exit velocity and 39.7% hard-hit rate were both the second-highest marks of his career, trailing only his disastrous 2019 season (his first as a Met). Neither is a glaring issue, particularly considering Diaz maintained elite strikeout and swinging-strike rates (38% and 18%, respectively), but he’ll want to avoid allowing those negative trends to continue, however slight they may currently be.

No WBC for Diaz in 2026, though!