After winning their second straight World Series, the Dodgers are showing no signs of slowing down.
Los Angeles has continued reinforcing its club this offseason, with the Dodgers agreeing to a three-year, $69 million deal with Edwin Díaz on Tuesday, a source told MLB.com. The standout closer has long been one of baseball’s top relievers, and Díaz figures to boost a Dodgers bullpen that had a 4.27 ERA last season, tied for the 10th-worst mark in the Majors.
Díaz’s signing is even more intriguing considering the Dodgers handed out a four-year, $72 million deal to left-hander Tanner Scott last offseason. Scott experienced a tough first season in Los Angeles, posting a 4.74 ERA with the lowest strikeout rate (25.2%) of his career, leading to the lefty losing the closer’s job and culminating with him not pitching in the postseason (potentially due to a combination of injury and performance).
Even beyond Scott, the Dodgers saw other high-priced relievers struggle for them in 2025, including Kirby Yates (5.23 ERA in 50 appearances) and Blake Treinen (5.40 ERA in 32 appearances). Considering how much the Dodgers relied on their starting pitchers in October because of their bullpen issues, Díaz, in theory, gives Los Angeles a dependable and elite reliever.
All of this context prompts the question: Is Díaz a safer option than Scott and other relievers the Dodgers have signed recently? Here are the reasons why the Dodgers should have confidence with Díaz continuing to perform at a high level during this contract.
An all-time bat-misser
When it comes to generating strikeouts, Díaz is one of the best in MLB history … seriously.
Among all of the pitchers that have thrown at least 500 innings in their career, Díaz’s 39.9% strikeout rate is second-best all time, only trailing the 41.1% mark from current Astros closer Josh Hader. In fact, Díaz is only one of four pitchers with a career strikeout rate of at least 35 percent, along with Hader, Aroldis Chapman (39.8%) and Craig Kimbrel (38.8%).
Díaz is showing no signs of slowing down in that category, either. While Díaz isn’t striking out half of the batters like he did in his historic 2022 campaign (50.2 percent strikeout rate), the right-hander was at 38% last season and 38.9% in 2024, essentially in line with his career norms.
Even in terms of pure whiff rate, Díaz is chugging right along. In the pitch-tracking era, which dates back to 2008, Díaz’s 39.8% whiff rate is second among all pitchers with at least 1,000 swings against them, only trailing the 40.6% clip from Devin Williams, who will replace Díaz with the Mets. Last season, Díaz posted a 41.5% whiff rate, comfortably above his career average.
In comparison to Scott, who was an elite bat-misser in his own right before his tough 2025 season, the left-hander “only” owns a career 29.8% strikeout rate and a 34.4% whiff rate. In his platform year in 2024, Scott had a 28.6% strikeout rate and 32.7% whiff rate, well below the marks provided by Díaz this past season.
Two elite pitches
Díaz and Scott both come at hitters with two-pitch arsenals: a four-seam fastball and a slider. The main difference, though, is Díaz has much better versions of those pitches and less year-to-year variability.
Díaz’s career results (2016-25)
- Slider: .160 BA / .253 SLG, 48.8% whiff rate, 46.8% strikeout rate
- Fastball: .212 BA / .362 SLG, 33.3% whiff rate, 34.1% strikeout rate
Scott’s career results (2017-25)
- Slider: .209 BA / .302 SLG, 42.3% whiff rate, 37.2% strikeout rate
- Fastball: .240 BA / .391 SLG, 25.9% whiff rate, 22.2% strikeout rate
That discrepancy is even more pronounced when you look at each player’s final season before joining the Dodgers. In 2025, Díaz had a 44% whiff rate on his slider and 39.4% whiff rate on his four-seamer. Scott, meanwhile, had a 38.8 percent whiff rate on his slider in 2024 and a 28.9 percent whiff rate on his four-seamer.
And as our own David Adler recently wrote about, Díaz used to do most of his damage on the slider but that has shifted in recent years, with the righty generating much better results on his four-seamer.
Díaz from 2020-22:
- Slider: .132 BA / .155 SLG allowed, 53% whiff rate, 51% strikeout rate, 165 K's
- Fastball: .241 BA / .388 SLG allowed, 34% whiff rate, 34% strikeout rate, 92 K's
Díaz from 2024-25:
- Slider: .182 BA / .304 SLG allowed, 42% whiff rate, 39% strikeout rate, 104 K's
- Fastball: .160 BA / .249 SLG allowed, 38% whiff rate, 38% strikeout rate, 78 K's
Beyond anything else, that’s evidence that Díaz has matured as a pitcher, utilizing his two elite pitches to generate more whiffs and better all-around results.
Other notable comparisons
Whether it’s run prevention or swing-and-miss stuff, Díaz has significantly outproduced Scott in his career and last season. If there are any similarities, however, you can look at the quality of contact against each pitcher throughout their career.
Díaz’s career batted-ball numbers
5.7% barrel rate
87.6 mph avg. exit velocity
35.5% hard-hit rate
Scott’s career batted ball numbers
5.6% barrel rate
87.6 mph avg. exit velocity
34% hard-hit rate
There is the caveat, however, that Scott is coming off of his worst season in terms of quality of contact, allowing a career-worst barrel rate (9%) and hard-hit rate (42.3%). There’s also the fact that Díaz simply allows less contact than Scott, which makes this comparison much less relevant considering how often each pitcher allows balls in play.
Still, both pitchers have experienced bouts of homer-itis in their careers, with Scott allowing 11 homers last season and Díaz allowing double-digit home runs on two occasions, including 15 in his first year with the Mets in 2019. When both are at their best, though, they limit quality contact at an elite level, like last season when Díaz only allowed four home runs in 66 1/3 innings.
There’s also the fact that Scott’s first year with the Dodgers was his age-30 season, whereas Díaz will be pitching in his age-32 season next year. Considering that Scott’s stuff was still intact last year despite the down season and that Díaz has experienced a downtick in velocity in recent years -- his fastball averaged 99.1 mph in 2022 and declined to 97.2 mph last season -- there’s an age and stuff aspect that will be worth monitoring with Díaz.
But the reality is that Díaz is going to go down as one of the most dominant relievers not just of his generation but of all time. And while Díaz might not ever return to the loftiest of heights of his 2022 season, he was still one of the top relievers in the sport last season and is still producing at an elite level even with diminished velocity.
Reliever volatility aside, Díaz is about as good as they come and should continue his dominance with the Dodgers as Los Angeles shoots for a three-peat in 2026.