The Los Angeles Dodgers have not seen a great return on their investment with Edwin Díaz yet.
He had a 10.50 ERA to start the season before going on the injured list after elbow surgery. Upon his return, he continued to struggle and is now back on the injured list with neck inflammation. Dave Roberts recently noted that when he's healthy again, he will have to earn back the opportunity to close games.
"I think it's more about getting him back healthy and then putting him in some softer landing situations to get the confidence, to get the feel and the trust of executing pitches, getting Major League hitters out," Roberts said recently, per MLB.com's Sonja Chen. "And then at that point in time, we'll go from there."
In the meantime, Tanner Scott will continue to close games. Recently, Roberts mentioned that he did not think he had a better option in the ninth inning besides Díaz, who was not pitching well at all. However, with him injured for most of the year, Scott has actually done a nice job. It sounds like Roberts is at least open to the idea of keeping Scott as his ninth-inning man now. Otherwise, he would just slot Díaz back in that role when he comes back.
"I’m good with the decision because I know I haven’t done my job," Díaz said. "If I’d done my job, I’d be pitching in the ninth inning. But I’m super happy because Tanner Scott is doing his job and doing it really well."
Last year, Scott went through what Díaz is going through now. He signed a big contract with the Dodgers to be the closer but had a 4.74 ERA. This year, he has a 2.24 ERA and 19 saves in 56 games.
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