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The Dodgers are actively trying to fix Edwin Díaz and his 10.66 ERA, per Fabian Ardaya at The New York Times. That number is jarring no matter how you frame it. The club acquired Díaz to be a high-leverage weapon, and so far the results have been the opposite of what anyone envisioned. The piece digs into what the Dodgers are doing behind the scenes to get him right — and the fact that they’re still investing time and energy into the project tells you they haven’t given up on the arm.

Díaz, of course, was one of the most dominant closers in baseball during his peak years with the Mets. His 2022 season — 32 saves, a 1.31 ERA, 118 strikeouts in 62 innings — was legitimately historic. The slider was virtually unhittable. But injuries have disrupted his trajectory since then, most notably the knee injury suffered during the 2023 World Baseball Classic and the subsequent struggles that followed. When the Dodgers brought him in, the bet was that their pitching infrastructure could help him recapture even a fraction of that elite form. A 10.66 ERA says that bet hasn’t paid off yet.

What makes this particularly frustrating is that Díaz still has the raw stuff. When his slider is working, it’s as nasty as any pitch in the league. The velocity is still there. The issue has been command and consistency — he’s been unable to locate with any reliability, and major league hitters don’t miss mistakes. At 32, there’s a fair question about whether the decline is mechanical, physical, or some combination of both. The Dodgers’ pitching lab has rehabilitated plenty of arms before, but this is a significant challenge.

The bullpen situation as a whole is worth paying attention to here. Evan Phillips has been the steadier late-inning option, and Alex Vesia continues to be reliable from the left side. Tanner Scott gives the club another high-end arm. Edgardo Henriquez has flashed plus stuff as well. So the Dodgers aren’t relying solely on Díaz to hold leads — they have depth, which buys them time to keep working with him rather than cutting bait. Jonathan Hernández and Jack Dreyer have also been contributing in various roles, giving Dave Roberts enough options that Díaz doesn’t have to be thrown into the fire every night while they tinker.

I think the Dodgers are handling this correctly. You don’t give up on a pitcher with Díaz’s ceiling in August, especially when you have enough bullpen depth to shelter him from the highest-pressure spots temporarily. But the clock is ticking. If the ERA is still north of 10 come September, this becomes less of a reclamation project and more of a sunk cost. For now, though, the front office is doing what it does best — trying to find the fix that no one else could. Whether it works is another question entirely, but the fact that Ardaya’s reporting shows they’re still engaged and methodical about it is at least a positive sign. We need Díaz to be a weapon in October, not a liability. The margin for error gets razor-thin in the postseason, and a closer you can’t trust changes everything about how a manager builds a game.

Source(s): Fabian Ardaya (The New York Times) | First reported: August 17, 2026 8:29 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers