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Edwin Díaz recorded a save and says he’s building confidence after making adjustments to his approach, per staff at DodgerBlue. After a brutal stretch that included multiple blown saves and shaky outings against the Brewers, the closer appears to have turned a corner — or at least taken a step in the right direction.

Díaz has had a rough go of it since returning from surgery to remove bone chips from his pitching elbow, which cost him the majority of the 2026 season. The Dodgers signed him during the offseason specifically to be the lockdown ninth-inning arm this roster desperately needed after the bullpen’s inconsistency in 2025. Instead, his return has been marked by command issues and hittable stuff, culminating in a particularly rough stretch during the Brewers series where he blew a save and continued to look uncomfortable on the mound. Manager Dave Roberts publicly backed him through it all, saying he was sticking with Díaz as the closer, and that faith appears to be paying off — at least for now.

The adjustments Díaz referenced are significant because his struggles haven’t just been about bad luck or poor sequencing. When he’s right, Díaz features one of the nastiest sliders in baseball — the pitch that made him a dominant closer with the Mets and earned him a Cy Young-caliber relief season back in 2022 when he posted a 1.31 ERA with 32 saves. But the bone chip surgery clearly affected his feel for the pitch, and his velocity and command hadn’t been where they needed to be since his activation. If he’s genuinely found something mechanically that’s clicking, that changes the bullpen picture considerably.

The timing matters here. With reports suggesting Roki Sasaki could potentially move into a closer role if Díaz continued to falter, and with Blake Treinen working his way back through live BP sessions, the Dodgers have been quietly building contingency plans. A functional Díaz makes all of those conversations less urgent. It also takes pressure off Evan Phillips and Tanner Scott, who have been carrying the high-leverage load while Díaz sorted himself out.

I’m not going to pretend one save erases weeks of concern. It doesn’t. But the fact that Díaz is talking about specific adjustments rather than just grinding through it is encouraging. This is a guy with elite stuff when healthy — the upside is real, and we’ve seen what he can do when the slider is working. The Dodgers need him right, especially with the postseason picture coming into focus. If this save is the start of a real turnaround and not just a one-off, our bullpen goes from a clear weakness to something that can actually hold leads in October. That’s the gap between a good team and a championship-caliber one. We’ll be watching closely.

Source(s): Staff (DodgerBlue) | First reported: August 15, 2026 5:42 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers