Dodgers officially add elite closer Edwin Diaz
LOS ANGELES — Sound the trumpets.
The Dodgers made their signing of free-agent relief pitcher Edwin Diaz official on Friday afternoon, adding the three-time All-Star for three years and $69 million. For the first time since the franchise’s saves leader, Kenley Jansen, left following the 2021 season, the Dodgers will go into the 2026 season with a closer, a dedicated ninth-inning reliever.
Since Jansen recorded 38 saves in 2021, the Dodgers have been led in saves by Craig Kimbrel in 2022, Evan Phillips in 2023 and 2024 and Tanner Scott in 2025. None recorded more than Phillips’ 24 saves in 2023. Kimbrel and Scott both struggled and lost their hold on the closer role before the end of the season. In each of the four seasons, the Dodgers had at least 11 different relievers record saves, five or more with multiple saves.
That egalitarian approach figures to be over with Diaz’s arrival.
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman characterized the move as less about any philosophical change in bullpen management and more a product of Diaz’s availability and the opportunity to get an elite closer for the first time since Jansen’s prime.
“I think it’s more the opportunity to get Sugar and add him to our mix,” Friedman said, using Diaz’s nickname. “For us, we have a high bar. To name someone the closer, you have to be one of the best. You have to be elite and dominant at what you do. Sugar is that.
“Just watching him compete over the years, seeing the selflessness in the postseason or in the last weekend of last year. ‘I’ll come in in the fourth inning, fifth inning. Whenever the game is potentially on the line.’ It just fits in really well with our culture and the selflessness of a lot of our superstar players. So just a lot of boxes were checked in our mind. Just a really high bar for us to say, ‘This person is our closer’ and Sugar checks all those boxes.”
The 31-year-old Diaz has averaged 31.6 saves over his eight healthy seasons – he missed the entire 2023 season after suffering a devastating knee injury during the World Baseball Classic – and led the majors with 57 for the Seattle Mariners in 2018. His 253 career saves is tied for third among active pitchers behind only Jansen (476) and Aroldis Chapman (367).
Returning from that knee injury in 2024, Diaz had some rough spots for the New York Mets. But last season, he had the lowest ERA in the National League among pitchers with at least 50 innings (1.63) and the highest strikeout rate. He was second in WHIP (0.87) and batting average against (.162).
“Being the ninth-inning (guy) is a big responsibility because the ball is in your hand for the last three outs of the game. They are the toughest three outs in the game,” said Diaz, whose Timmy Trumpet walkup song became a fan favorite in New York. “Personally, I take it nice and easy. I’m the last guy. I always go batter by batter, pitch by pitch. I don’t think too much about completing the inning because anything can happen in one inning.
“I just try to make my pitches. If I get my job done, the team will be in a good position. If I don’t get my job done, we are in trouble. Every time I get the chance to pitch, I always think we will win. That’s how I take it. If I don’t have a good result, I flush it right away and I come back the next day ready to go again. That’s how I think. Whatever happened on the mound that day, whether it was good or bad, I flush it right away and come ready to go.”
The signing of Diaz allows the Dodgers to flush away the first year of their previous high-priced commitment to a reliever – Scott. Signed for four years and $72 million, Scott led the majors with 10 blown saves and posted a 4.74 ERA. By the time the postseason started, Scott was out of the picture and didn’t throw a single pitch during the Dodgers’ run to the World Series title. He was replaced by a starting pitcher, Roki Sasaki, as closer. Another starter, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, closed out Game 7 of the World Series.
The Dodgers plan to move Sasaki back into the starting rotation in 2026 and Scott into the type of fluid matchup role they originally envisioned for him.
“(Knowing) you have Edwin at the back. … (Manager) Dave (Roberts) and (pitching coach) Mark (Prior) and (assistant pitching coach) Connor (McGuiness) have the ability to deploy the rest of the ’pen the way they need,” General Manager Brandon Gomes said, calling Diaz “the perfect fit” for the Dodgers’ bullpen. “We have a lot of guys that can pitch in many different situations. So we really have the ability to shorten the game if a starter, say, doesn’t go six or seven (innings). Obviously that’s always the preference but we know that’s not the world we live in.
“So being able to have really highly-talented guys that have pitched in those middle innings before leading up to Edwin in the ninth where there’s really no matchups that you’re concerned with.”
Diaz opted out of a five-year, $102 million contract with the Mets, leaving two years and $38 million on the table to become a free agent this winter. That deal was the largest for a reliever at the time and Diaz has now topped it, getting the highest average-annual value ever given to a reliever in his contract with the Dodgers.
Assured by his brother, Alexis (who spent most of the 2025 season in the Dodgers’ organization), that the Dodgers would be a good landing spot, Edwin Diaz said the ultimate decision hinged on one factor.
“I came here to win,” he said Friday. “That’s my goal, to try to win another World Series with this team. I’m really happy to be here – and let’s go Dodgers.”