{"id":93315,"date":"2025-12-13T13:40:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T13:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/93315\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T13:40:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T13:40:24","slug":"how-dodgers-landed-edwin-diaz-and-finally-found-a-bona-fide-closer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/93315\/","title":{"rendered":"How Dodgers landed Edwin D\u00edaz \u2014 and finally found a bona fide closer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the start of the winter, the assumption was that top free-agent closer Edwin D\u00edaz<\/a> would fall out of the Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 preferred price range.<\/p>\n

Knowing they needed bullpen help, however, the Dodgers decided to reach out with interest anyway.<\/p>\n

What followed will go down as one of the most surprising outcomes of this MLB offseason. And, for the Dodgers, their latest in a string of big-name, star-player acquisitions.<\/p>\n

Even though the Dodgers initially had doubts about their chances of landing D\u00edaz \u2014 especially on the kind of relatively shorter-term deal they were seeking in their hunt for relief help \u2014 circumstances changed, D\u00edaz\u2019s market evolved, and they went from dark horse to front-runner.<\/p>\n

On Friday, it all culminated in a Dodger Stadium news conference, the once-unexpected union between the two-time defending champions and three-time All-Star right-hander being made official as D\u00edaz\u2019s three-year, $69-million contract was finalized.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy,\u201d D\u00edaz said of his free agent process, which ended with him leaving the New York Mets after a decorated seven-year stint. \u201cI spent seven years in New York. They treated me really good. They treated me great. But I chose the Dodgers because they are a winning organization. I\u2019m looking to win, and I think they have everything to win. So picking the Dodgers was pretty easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t mean it came as any less of a surprise.<\/p>\n

Early on this winter, the Dodgers signaled a hesitancy to hand out another long-term contract to a reliever, after watching Tanner Scott<\/a> struggle in the first season of the four-year, $72-million deal he signed last winter.<\/p>\n

And though they gradually grew more open to the idea, giving serious consideration to Devin Williams before he signed a three-year, $51-million deal with the Mets two weeks ago, the thought of landing D\u00edaz seemed far-fetched.<\/p>\n

After all, the 31-year-old was widely expected to receive a four- or five-year deal, having already opted out of the remaining two seasons on his record-breaking five-year, $102-million contract with the Mets to become a free agent this winter. Also, since he had turned down a qualifying offer from the Mets at the start of the offseason, the Dodgers knew they\u2019d lose two draft picks (their second- and fifth-highest selections) to sign him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe checked in from the get-go,\u201d general manager Brandon Gomes<\/a> said. But, he acknowledged, \u201cthe opportunity to add somebody of this caliber to what\u2019s already a really talented bullpen was something that we weren\u2019t sure was going to be able to actually come to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turned out, a few factors were working in the Dodgers\u2019 favor.<\/p>\n

First, the Mets weren\u2019t willing to give D\u00edaz a longer-term deal, either. Instead, in the wake of the Williams signing, they were reportedly offering only three years for a similar salary as the Dodgers. Not coincidentally, it was only entering last week\u2019s winter meetings \u2014 mere days after Williams\u2019 Dec. 3 agreement with the Mets \u2014 that Gomes said talks started to intensify.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving those conversations and making sure you\u2019re in there and [letting him know], \u2018Hey, we\u2019re really valuing you, and if things make sense on your end, great, we\u2019re here\u2019 \u2014 that was the biggest thing,\u201d Gomes said. \u201cMaking sure you\u2019re exploring all avenues, because you don\u2019t know how things are gonna play out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another benefit for the Dodgers: They had advocates close to D\u00edaz vouching for the organization.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

The Dodgers\u2019 new star closer, Edwin D\u00edaz, speaks at his introductory news conference on Friday at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz said he received rave reviews about the club from both his brother Alexis (who spent most of last year with the Dodgers, after they acquired him from Cincinnati following an early-season demotion to the minors) and his Team Puerto Rico teammate Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> (a longtime Dodgers fan favorite who is currently a free agent).<\/p>\n

\u201cThey treat every single player the same,\u201d D\u00edaz said of the message he received. \u201cThat\u2019s really nice, [especially] knowing they have a lot of great players, future Hall of Fame players. \u2026 That\u2019s really good. That\u2019s how a winning clubhouse is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it all led up to a rather swift signing process on Tuesday morning, one in which the Dodgers gave D\u00edaz the highest average annual salary for a reliever in MLB history ($23 million per year) but kept the terms to three years and were able to defer more than $13 million of the total guarantee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think once Devin came off the board, it was like, \u2018OK, let\u2019s continue to explore the different options,\u2019\u201d Gomes said. \u201cObviously having no idea what conversations had gone on up to that point between Edwin and other clubs, it was more about: \u2018Hey, we\u2019re here if there\u2019s something that makes sense. And we would love to have you join our group.\u2019 And fortunately enough, everybody\u2019s interests were aligned on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why you shouldn\u2019t play the game of assumptions, and just do the due diligence on the front end,\u201d Gomes added. \u201cSometimes things work out, sometimes they don\u2019t. But having those conversations and making sure you\u2019re doing the work that\u2019s needed to really understand the situation is important, especially when you see situations like this play out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the Dodgers will put their faith in D\u00edaz to play a leading role in their quest for a World Series three-peat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He will be the club\u2019s designated closer \u2014 a role they have been hesitant to bestow upon any one reliever since the departure of Kenley Jansen<\/a> (the only MLB reliever with more saves than D\u00edaz since his debut in 2016).<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, we have a high bar. To name someone the closer, you have to be one of the best. You have to be elite and dominant at what you do,\u201d president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s expectation is that D\u00edaz\u2019s presence will elevate the rest of the bullpen, too, giving a more defined late-game structure to a relief corps that ranks just 21st in the majors in ERA last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allows Doc and our coaching staff to kind of put guys into spots leading up to that,\u201d Gomes said, \u201cknowing that it doesn\u2019t really matter who\u2019s in the ninth, that we\u2019re gonna like the matchup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest news from Friday\u2019s introduction: D\u00edaz still plans to enter games to his iconic walk-out song, \u201cNarco\u201d by Timmy Trumpet \u2014 which Gomes described as \u201cprobably the most electric walkout song in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait, the first game of the season, coming in the ninth with Timmy Trumpet and getting the W for the Dodgers,\u201d D\u00edaz said.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, that scene felt like an unlikely vision.<\/p>\n

But now, anytime the sounds of trumpets echo around Chavez Ravine in the summers to come, they will serve as a reminder of the team\u2019s latest free-agent coup \u2014 one more unexpected than almost all the rest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the start of the winter, the assumption was that top free-agent closer Edwin D\u00edaz would fall out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1883,4017,6709,31683,426,8797,51329,31681,48,52,51,47,50,49,44639,29146,428,4610,430,3162,72],"class_list":["post-93315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-club","tag-contract","tag-deal","tag-devin-williams","tag-dodgers","tag-edwin-diaz","tag-free-agent-process","tag-gomes","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mets","tag-reliever","tag-start","tag-thing","tag-week","tag-winter","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93315","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=93315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}