How the Dodgers are trying fix closer Edwin Díaz and his 10.66 ERA

LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts needed to hear from the man he still calls his closer, so he pulled Edwin Díaz aside on Friday afternoon. Díaz, booed off the mound a night earlier after his third blown save in a week, was his most rested option for the ninth inning. Before inserting him into that spot, Roberts wanted to gauge where Díaz’s head was at.

It was a brief conversation. Díaz, the smiley $69 million closer for the Los Angeles Dodgers whose entrance is marked by trumpets and whose exit Thursday was filled with jeers, needed it.

“That’s going to help with my confidence, 100 percent,” Díaz told The Athletic. “They keep trusting me. If it was in another position, maybe they put another guy, or give me a break. But they keep trusting me, and give me the ball.”

Roberts gave Díaz the ball on Friday night because he lacked another option. His bullpen was gassed. Díaz was not, and had already been working with coaches on refining his delivery. The Dodgers are content to play it out with Díaz as closer the rest of the way, believing the best version of their October pitching staff still has an effective Díaz as part of it.

Díaz hit a batter, walked two more and was down to his final hitter when Milwaukee’s Joey Ortiz stepped into the batter’s box with two outs and the bases loaded, with the Dodgers clinging to a 3-1 lead. Díaz got the save, but threw just 11 of his 26 pitches for strikes.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Roberts said. “I watched the inning too.”

The recalibration of Díaz is underway as the Dodgers try to get their closer, who has a 10.66 ERA, back on track. The Dodgers hope that Friday night’s roller-coaster outing boosts Díaz’s confidence, and that the mechanical tweaks that began in earnest on Friday afternoon could return Diáz to his heights as one of the most dominant arms in the sport.

Díaz knows when he’s on a roll. For years, his fastball and slider have been dominant, with each pitch capable of generating a swing-and-miss when needed. Those pitches were located and exploded out of his hand with movement. Díaz’s ability to generate extension down the mound gave hitters little time to react.

However, through 15 appearances as a Dodger, it’s been a matter of which pitch Díaz doesn’t have on any given night. When he blew a save against the Diamondbacks on Aug. 7, his slider was flat and got crushed. On Thursday against the Brewers, his fastball didn’t move or go anywhere he wanted it to, often drifting over the middle of the plate, leading to hard contact.

Díaz said he’s not delivering each pitch like he’s used to. The Dodgers have picked up on what Díaz has also noticed when reviewing his outings on video — that Díaz has gotten too rotational or “east-west” rather than going “north-south” down the mound.

“That’s a red flag,” Díaz said.

The quality of Díaz’s stuff told the story. His arm slot has dropped from 23 degrees in 2023 to 20 degrees in 2024 and 19 degrees last year before dropping steeply to 15 degrees in 2026.

The cause is uncertain, though a drop in arm slot can often result from trying to guard against injury. Díaz may have been doing that in April before he needed arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies from his left elbow. Whatever the cause, it’s been a difficult habit to correct, and something the Dodgers emphasize with him in his work.

“If I’m consistent, my fastball will be better,” Díaz said. “My slider will be better. “When I start getting weak contact and start getting chases, I know my pitches are playing better.”

The Dodgers are giving Díaz a chance to work through this, just as they have with struggling veterans in years past. It took until the end of the regular season for Tanner Scott to be removed from the team’s ninth-inning plans last year. And they rolled out Michael Conforto in left field throughout the regular season before leaving him off every postseason roster. When the Dodgers removed Craig Kimbrel from the closer role in 2022, they waited until Sept. 23 to pull the plug.

They do have options for replacing Díaz as closer, though Roberts and the Dodgers brass do not want to deploy them yet. That list of choices will likely increase in October when the club hopes to have Roki Sasaki, Justin Wrobleski and possibly others in its postseason bullpen.

This is still a relief group that would likely be at its best if Díaz can recapture his old form. So the Dodgers will give him that opportunity.

“(That is) everything,” Díaz said. “They give me everything because they are giving me the chance to keep being successful in my position. So every time they give me the ball, I’ve just got to do my job. … I’ve been having a good game, (then a) bad game, good game, bad game. I have to find a way to keep pitching good.”