Neither Alexis Díaz nor the Los Angeles Dodgers bullpen have met expectations this year, but the team is about to see if a marriage can work.
The defending champions acquired the former All-Star closer in a trade with the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday, adding a new arm to one of the most injury-ravaged units in baseball. Going back to the Reds is 2024 13th-round pick Mike Villani.
Reliever Evan Phillips was also placed on the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move.
Per The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya, Díaz is not expected to report to the Dodgers immediately, meaning he will likely remain in the minor leagues for now.
Alexis Díaz is a reclamation project for the Dodgers
The trade would have been a bigger story two years ago.
After 2023, Díaz, the younger brother of New York Mets closer Edwin Díaz, was coming off his first career All-Star season and held a 2.47 ERA in 131 career innings with 47 saves and 169 strikeouts. With a mid-90s fastball and one of baseball’s better sliders, he looked like one of MLB’s best young relievers.
Unfortunately, relievers can go from All-Star to out of the big leagues rather quickly. Díaz disappointed in 2024 with a 3.99 ERA, then missed the start of 2025 due to a hamstring strain. When he came back in mid-April, he was unusable, allowing eight earned runs in six innings before Cincinnati demoted him to Triple-A, where he now holds a 4.61 ERA.
Will Alexis Diaz be the Dodgers’ latest success story? (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)
(Dustin Bradford via Getty Images)
What went wrong? Well, Díaz’s slider went from being a pitch batters were posting a .153 batting average and .225 slugging percentage against in 2023 to .385 and 1.000 this year. Even last season was a warning sign as well, as he went from a 30.1% strikeout rate in 2023 to 22.7% in 2024 to 9.1% in 2025. He just doesn’t have an out pitch now.
And now, the Reds are giving up on him putting it back together, trading him away for a minor leaguer in Villani who has pitched two career innings in affiliated ball.
The Dodgers just need arms now, though
While stories like Díaz’s often require some tinkering with the new team before he hits the big-league mound, the Dodgers could seemingly use any reliever available these days.
The Dodgers bullpen was supposed to be one of the best in baseball after they signed Tanner Scott, Blake Treinen and Kirby Yates to more than $100 million in contracts, with Michael Kopech, Brusdar Graterol and Evan Phillips still on the roster, but all of those relievers are on the IL right now save for Scott, who is having his own issues.
Scott has blown five saves already this season and had perhaps his worst outing yet on Wednesday, when he blew a two-run lead and was eventually saddled with four earned runs in a loss to the Cleveland Guardians.
As a unit, the Dodgers bullpen currently ranks 17th in MLB with a 3.98 ERA (and first in innings with 239 2/3, as their rotation hasn’t been great either). They’ve been regularly cycling through low-leverage relievers, so if Díaz looks at all usable, they will probably use him, especially with him already holding a 40-man roster spot.
Relievers in Díaz’s position have found success with the Dodgers before, so it’s hard to count him out here.
Read the full article here