Edwin Díaz’s struggles add uncertainty to the Dodgers’ bullpen, but no change in role yet

LOS ANGELES — Patience is running thin for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ $69 million closer, and the boo-ers descended upon Dodger Stadium on Thursday night as the Milwaukee Brewers tacked on Edwin Díaz’s third blown save in a week.

Of all the fault lines that have been revealed during this ugly stretch for baseball’s resident juggernauts, none are more troubling than the ninth inning, where Díaz’s trumpet entrance music has come to serve as the opener to jeers. Díaz inherited a two-run lead and coughed it up in a 5-4 loss to the Brewers, who slapped single after single against him and added more uncertainty to the closer position for a club vying for a third consecutive World Series title.

“It’s frustrating because I know my ability,” Díaz said. “I know what I can do on the mound. To not be able to do it sucks.”

Since returning from midseason elbow surgery, the three-time All-Star reliever has allowed a run in five of seven appearances. Díaz’s ERA has swelled to 11.57 in his first year in Los Angeles.

As of a week ago, the Dodgers were unbeaten in the 65 games where they held a lead after eight innings. They’ve since lost two of their last five games where they’ve had a lead in the ninth, both in innings where Díaz pitched.

But a change is not coming. At least not yet.

“Give me another option,” manager Dave Roberts said, repeating the rhetorical question multiple times over the course of a 5-minute barrage of questions about his closer.

“I can’t just say change in lower leverage,” he continued. “I have to have other options. And to be quite honest, none of those guys really are throwing the baseball great. So that’s just kind of the way it is.”

Brewers get four hits in a row off Edwin Diaz to tie the game! pic.twitter.com/UGU54l9HZW

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) August 14, 2026

Roberts has, on several occasions, called this as deep a group of relievers as he’s had. That trust has waned as their struggles have mounted.

Díaz was supposed to be the solution to last year’s ninth-inning woes, not another high-priced free-agent reliever whose struggles jeopardized the club’s run at history. Tanner Scott’s woes grew so much over a league-worst 10 blown saves in 2025 that the $72 million man declared baseball hated him and he wound up not throwing a single pitch in the postseason; Díaz’s signing shifted Scott to more of a setup role, though he did fill in well in the ninth while Díaz was recovering from a procedure to remove loose bodies from his elbow.

Scott has a 2.25 ERA, and presents one option, though he has dealt with his own fluctuating velocity and results over the last week. He was summoned to get the final out of the eighth inning on Thursday, and gave up a 101 mph fly ball to Christian Yelich that was caught at the wall. Alex Vesia followed Díaz in the ninth and gave up the go-ahead run on Jake Bauers’ bouncing single through the right side. While Vesia has a clear track record, he has been working through some issues with walks of late. Edgardo Henriquez boasts premium stuff, but no feel for how to control it still. Jack Dreyer has been the club’s best reliever of late, and even he gave up a two-run game-tying blast just three days ago against the Royals.

It does not help that the Dodgers’ bullpen has been used often, a byproduct of a seven-man bullpen with Shohei Ohtani not pitching and a run of close games that have taxed their best arms. It was a minor victory to get through Wednesday’s game only deploying Eric Lauer and Landon Knack to reset the bullpen. A 4-2 win was just the cherry on top.

The Dodgers have played just one game this month decided by five or fewer runs, and have not won a game themselves by that margin since Yoshinobu Yamamoto tossed a complete game in the first leg of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium on July 19.

They have sputtered in several facets, which have only compounded their growing issue in the closer’s role. Even when they have won, it hasn’t come easy — which adds a strain late in games and only heightens the spotlight on the Dodgers bullpen. They have  little margin for error, and have squandered whatever margin they have had.

Los Angeles had a top-10 bullpen by ERA over the season’s first two months, ranking seventh with a 3.19 mark. Since, they’re at 4.78, one of the worst in the sport.

So while the Dodgers could go closer by committee, it’s unlikely at this point.

“We’ve got to get other guys on track to even have that be even a valid conversation to be honest with you,” Roberts said.

“Everyone’s got a role. They all have jobs to do, and they all have to do their job. That’s it.”

Dave Roberts is not making a change — yet. (Harry How / Getty Images)

That starts with Díaz, whose troubles have shapeshifted with each outing but share a similar end result: lots of hard contact, not enough swing and miss, and a lot of runs on the board.

Díaz said he has talked through each performance with pitching coaches Mark Prior and Connor McGuiness as well as bullpen coach Josh Bard. The issues, however, have varied from night to night. Maybe it’s mechanics, as Díaz’s arm angle has dropped steadily since 2022 before plummeting from 19 degrees with the New York Mets last year to 15 degrees so far with the Dodgers.

Last weekend, when he blew consecutive saves in Arizona, he struggled to find the right feel or shape to his slider to get swings and misses. Thursday, he left far too many fastballs over the heart of the plate.

“I was throwing strikes, but right in the middle,” Díaz said. “Every big league hitter can hit it right in the middle, [even if you] throw 200 miles an hour.”

Joey Ortiz lined a 95.9 fastball back up the middle after Díaz opened the inning with a punchout. Díaz got David Hamilton to two strikes before getting a center-cut fastball he hammered to center field. Díaz yanked a fastball to Jackson Chourio to fall behind in the count 3-1, then Chourio poked a slider off the plate and floated a single out to bring home a run. Díaz left a slider up that Garrett Mitchell gashed into right to tie the game and cement another blown save.

Díaz has been back for seven outings now. This is more than just rust that he must work through.

“We’ve got to figure it out,” Roberts said.

That work will continue — in the ninth inning.

“I just gotta see what they wanna do,” Díaz said. “I wanna do the best thing for the team. At the end of the day, if they give me the ball in the ninth I will try to do my job. If they give me the ball in another inning, I will try to do my job. Gotta get better, be consistent.”