Edwin Diaz has blown three saves in his last four appearances, but the Los Angeles Dodgers are not giving up on their closer.
Diaz returned to the Dodgers at the end of July after missing most of the season due to elbow surgery. He has been largely ineffective since his return and gave up three runs in the ninth on Thursday in the Dodgers’ 5-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Despite growing calls to make a change at closer, manager Dave Roberts said that will not be happening because he does not feel the team has any better option.
“Give me another option,” Roberts said, via Sonja Chen of MLB.com. “I can’t just say, ‘Change to lower leverage.’ I have to have other options, and to be quite honest, none of those guys really are throwing the baseball great.”
Some might disagree with Roberts’ assertion. Tanner Scott has been having an excellent season and has previous experience as a closer, though he struggled for the Dodgers last season. Scott closed for much of this year when Diaz was injured, and has 16 saves to his name.
The Dodgers are stuck in the midst of their worst stretch of the season. They are 4-8 in August and cannot seem to fully break out of their slump. The team is rightly confident that they will, but there have to be reasonable concerns about whether Diaz is cut out for the closer job right now, as well as how long of a leash Roberts will give him if he continues to struggle.
