Edwin Díaz’s velocity is down, Dodgers say he’s day to day

LOS ANGELES — With a three-run lead in the ninth inning on Saturday night, the Dodgers opted not to use closer Edwin Díaz, whom they signed to a record-setting contract in December. His velocity is down, but Díaz says he’s not hurt, and the Dodgers say they don’t think it’s a mechanical issue. Díaz may or may not be available on Sunday.

“Just talking to the pitching guys, looking at the velocity and some of the things he’s dealt with in the past, it’s a day-to-day thing,” manager Dave Roberts said Sunday. “I’m going to see how he feels in catch play and talk to the trainers and pitching guys, see where we go and make a decision from there.

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“I’m confident right now, because everything I hear is he feels fine. For me, you hear it, you want to completely trust it, but you’re also looking at the [radar] gun and making sure. We’re treading lightly, and giving him the benefit of the doubt, and still watching.”

Díaz on Friday night blew a three-run lead in the ninth inning and threw 23 pitches.

On Saturday night, manager Roberts said Díaz was unavailable due to the previous night’s workload, which completely tracks with the team’s bullpen deployment in the first three weeks of the season. Thus far, there have been only eight instances of a pitcher throwing on back-to-back days, including Díaz on March 27-28. Only one of those outings on no days rest came the day after throwing more than 17 pitches — Edgardo Henríquez threw 25 pitches on April 3 in Washington D.C., then was used the next day in a very low-leverage situation, up by six runs to get the final three outs in the ninth inning.

Ten times this season a Dodgers reliever has thrown at least 20 pitches in an outing. Other than the Henriquez outing, all those pitchers have been given at least one day off before pitching next, and in most cases got two or more days off.

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During that outing on Friday, Díaz averaged 95.5 mph on his nine four-seam fastballs, and on the season he’s averaged 95.8 mph. He’s averaged at least 97 mph on that pitch in every other season of his career, including 97.2 mph in 2025.

Starting slow has been the norm recently for Díaz, for whom April has seen his lowest velocity of the season dating back to 2022. He did not pitch at all in 2023 after suffering a torn patellar tendon in his knee.

Díaz has pitched only six games, and struck out 10 of his 29 batters faced while allowing four runs in six innings. But his current 95.8 mph would be the lowest velocity month of his career.

“We’re still trying to dig in a little bit,” Roberts said, calling the 2-mph drop from Díaz’s usual average “significant.”

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“A couple days ago there were a lot of throws in there, too. Like we’ve done many times is to play the long view with our guys,” Roberts added. “We’re still going to do what’s best for him and the organization. This is a day-to-day thing, it really is. It’s not an IL thing we’re talking about, it’s more day-to-day.”