Things within the Los Angeles Dodgers bullpen in 2025 were volatile to say the least.
With Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol and Michael Kopech injured for much of the year, and the combination of Blake Treinen and Tanner Scott being woefully inconsistent, Los Angeles struggled to find someone that could close out games.
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The team had accrued 27 blown saves last year and still managed to win the World Series. Even then, the front office knew reinforcements were required to help figure out that issue.
The braintrust of Brandon Gomes and Andrew Friedman sat next to new signing Edwin Diaz as the trio fielded questions during his introductory press conference in front of the LA media on Friday afternoon.
When asked point-blank if Diaz was the closer, Gomes replied “correct” before Friedman took the microphone and expanded upon the importance of landing the multi-time All-Star.
“Sugar” is Diaz’s primary nickname as Friedman frequently referred to him as during his answer.
“Yeah, I think it’s more uh, the opportunity to to get Sugar and add him to our mix. I mean, for us it’s just we have a high bar to name someone the closer. Uh, you have to be one of the best, you have to be elite and dominant at what you do. Uh, Sugar is that. And I think 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 the fourth inning, fifth inning, whenever the game is potentially on the line. And it fits in really well with our culture and the selflessness of a lot of our superstar players. So, so many boxes were checked in our mind, um, but again, just a very high bar to say this person is our closer and Sugar checks all those boxes.”
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With Scott in particular having his issues, landing Diaz enables last year’s big reliever signing to return to a setup role where he thrived in San Diego with the Padres. The lefty-righty balance also helps the Dodgers shorten games with some real versatility and flexibility based on which opposing players come to the plate.
At the very least, the Dodgers have inked arguably the best closer in the game — and that facet should enable them to be even more of a favorite heading into 2026.
Photo Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
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