{"id":178597,"date":"2026-02-15T02:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T02:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/178597\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T02:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T02:38:19","slug":"edwin-diaz-responds-to-steve-cohen-comments-settles-in-with-dodgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/178597\/","title":{"rendered":"Edwin D\u00edaz responds to Steve Cohen comments, settles in with Dodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PHOENIX\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Dodgers<\/a> closer Edwin D\u00edaz<\/a> has been settling in with his new team at Camelback Ranch, but in his first comments to the media since camp opened, he faced questions about his old team. <\/p>\n

In an interview with team broadcaster Howie Rose<\/a> on Friday, New York Mets owner Steve Cohen called D\u00edaz\u2019s decision to a sign a three-year, $69-million contract with the Dodgers \u201cperplexing.\u201d Though D\u00edaz was caught off guard by the comments, he said Saturday he has no bad feelings toward the Mets or their fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a market and I was a free agent, so I got the chance to talk with everyone,\u201d D\u00edaz said. \u201cI think the Dodgers did a great job of recruiting me, so at the end of the day, I chose to be here. I have a lot of respect for the Mets organization \u2014 players, staff, ownership \u2014 they treated me pretty good. I don\u2019t have anything bad to say about them. But at the end of the day, I\u2019m here, so this is a new journey for me. I\u2019m happy to be with the Dodgers, so let\u2019s see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz participated in the Dodgers\u2019 first day of official workouts Friday, throwing a clean bullpen session without any hiccups. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts<\/a> likes what he has seen from the three-time MLB reliever of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited to get to know him more,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cJust a great teammate, really good person, loves baseball, a good heartbeat. You can tell he knows what he needs to do to get ready. [He\u2019s] likable, and at the end of the day, he chose to be here, so that\u2019s something that is of a lot of value for us. High character. I\u2019m really looking forward to getting to know him.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing that attracted D\u00edaz to the Dodgers was the team\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how they\u2019ve been so good,\u201d D\u00edaz said. \u201cThey have a really good clubhouse\u2026 They\u2019ve got different personalities in the clubhouse. They\u2019ve got different players from different countries, and they all get together and have fun, so that\u2019s something good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of having a melting pot of a clubhouse means missing some key ingredients for an extended period of spring training. The Dodgers will have several players participating in the World Baseball Classic<\/a>, including Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Will Smith and D\u00edaz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Each major leaguer competing in the WBC runs the risk of an injury that could curtail their season, something D\u00edaz knows all too well. Moments after striking out the side to send Puerto Rico to the quarterfinals in 2023, he sustained a season-ending knee injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite that bad experience, D\u00edaz told reporters it was a no-brainer when he was asked to compete for his country again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t in my mind,\u201d D\u00edaz said of the injury. \u201cI have the chance to play in front of my family in Puerto Rico. It was an easy decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz\u2019s fearlessness is one trait Roberts admires in his new closer. D\u00edaz faced Roberts\u2019 squad in the 2024 National League Championship Series, in which the Dodgers managed only two hits off him across 51\/3 innings, scoring no runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not scared,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cWhen he\u2019s in the game, it\u2019s an uncomfortable at-bat for lefties and righties, and when we did see him in the postseason, [we were] really trying to keep him out of the game, knowing that he can go one, two, even three innings. That he\u2019s done against us in the postseason; [he\u2019s] just a great competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz should stabilize the back end of the bullpen. Since bidding farewell to Kenley Jansen after the 2021 season, the Dodgers haven\u2019t had a closer tally more than 25 saves in a season. Over his nine-year career, D\u00edaz has 253 saves.<\/p>\n

With D\u00edaz expected to be the regular ninth-inning guy, Roberts looks forward to having more flexibility when managing his bullpen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s huge,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that there\u2019s one way to manage a \u2019pen, but when you have a guy like Edwin D\u00edaz as your closer, I do think it frees up other guys, myself included. Not having to worry about matchups for the ninth, I think that\u2019s freeing for me and allows for getting the matchups we need in the prior innings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dodgers staying cautious with Graterol<\/p>\n

One key relief weapon Roberts hopes to have in his armory is Brusdar Graterol. The hard-throwing right-hander underwent surgery on the labrum in his right shoulder shortly after the 2024 World Series and hasn\u2019t pitched in a game since.<\/p>\n

Roberts provided an update on Graterol\u2019s recovery Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in the picture, but I do think that coming back from the shoulder, it\u2019s going to take some time,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cHe\u2019s in the bucket of, we\u2019re going to slow-play him. I think yesterday he threw off the mound, and the velocity is not near where it\u2019s going to be, so I think that it\u2019s a slow progression. I just don\u2019t know where that puts us, but it\u2019s a slow process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staff writer Anthony Solorzano contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Dodgers closer Edwin D\u00edaz has been settling in with his new team at Camelback Ranch, but in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[217,6848,23982,426,8797,6223,84801,423,84799,84800,48,52,51,47,50,49,44639,51440,9442,18767,424],"class_list":{"0":"post-178597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-day","9":"tag-decision","10":"tag-diaz","11":"tag-dodgers","12":"tag-edwin-diaz","13":"tag-end","14":"tag-first-comment","15":"tag-game","16":"tag-good-clubhouse","17":"tag-graterol-underwent","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-la-headlines","20":"tag-la-news","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","23":"tag-los-angeles-news","24":"tag-mets","25":"tag-new-team","26":"tag-player","27":"tag-puerto-rico","28":"tag-roberts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}