Why Edwin Díaz still has hope of salvaging disaster debut Dodgers season

Ninth inning. Trumpets blaring. Edwin Díaz trotting out of the bullpen to collect the final three outs of a game.

It’s a scene the Dodgers dreamt about all winter, after signing the star closer to a $69 million contract in December.

It’s become an all-too-rare occurrence since then, with the right-hander battling injuries and underperformance in what has been a nightmarish debut season.

Yet, last Friday night, such a moment materialized again in Díaz’s return from the injured list –– helping set the stage for a crucial final week in which the right-hander will be battling for a place on the Dodgers’ postseason roster.

“I gotta show them I’m part of that bullpen,” Díaz said. “I haven’t pitched [much] this year, and when I’ve been on the mound I’ve been struggling. So right now I’m giving my 200% just to show them I will be in that roster spot … Just every time, when they give me the ball in any situation, I will do my job.”

Granted, Friday’s outing wasn’t a save opportunity, with Díaz only pitching because the Dodgers held a comfortable six-run lead. Neither was his appearance in another rout of the San Francisco Giants on Saturday, with the Dodgers continuing to ease him back in lower-leverage situations.

Still, at this point of the year, Díaz’s pair of scoreless innings were nonetheless signs of progress.

“I liked everything,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I liked his intensity. I liked the fastball velocity. The slider was good. So it was just really good to kind of get him back in the mix. That’s something to build on.”

Over this final week, the Dodgers will need to see more such outings. If Díaz is to make their postseason roster, he can no longer afford any bouts of regression.

“I just want to keep climbing the ladder,” Díaz said, “and finish the season strong.”

That Díaz is even in this spot is a reminder of all the ways his highly anticipated debut Dodgers season has gone wrong.

He stumbled through the opening month, suffering an ERA above 10.00, before being diagnosed with loose bodies in his elbow that required a surgical procedure.

When he returned in late July, his results still didn’t improve, with the 32-year-old giving up 11 more runs in nine more frustrating outings while continuing to battle flaws in his delivery.

Another injured list stint came in late August, when Díaz was shut down again with inflammation in his neck.

During that absence, he and the team tried to clean up his mechanics –– specifically identifying a drop in his arm angle as a potential root cause of his problems this year. Yet, in his first four outings of a minor-league rehab assignment, he gave up six runs (including five in one disastrous appearance on Sept. 13) and walked seven batters.

As a result, just last week, Roberts openly cast doubt on Díaz’s postseason roster chances.

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However, Díaz went back to the drawing board one more time during his stint in triple-A. This time, he sat down with the club’s Oklahoma City pitching coaches, Ryan Dennick and David Anderson, to review old video from his three-time All-Star career.

That process yielded a new solution, with the trio finding that Díaz “wasn’t moving my hips the [same] way” he had in previous seasons.

Thus, Díaz made an adjustment in a bullpen session last week, looked good enough in one final rehab outing to be brought back to the majors, and at least showed some signs of promise in his back-to-back outings last weekend –– specifically by commanding his fastball better and allowing his slider to play off it deceptively.

“I’ve been able to throw strikes,” Díaz said, after striking out four batters and allowing just one hit and one walk in the two appearances. “I think that was my problem. I wasn’t throwing my fastball for strikes. Now I’m able to command my fastball really good. When I command my fastball, my slider plays up. So I feel really good right now.”

More improvement will be required, of course, if Díaz is to still salvage a spot on the team’s postseason roster.

He has already lost the closer role. He is battling with a slew of other right-handers, such as Blake Treinen and Brock Stewart, just for a middle relief gig.

It certainly isn’t what the Dodgers expected when they signed him in what felt like a coup back in December.

All they can hope for now is that, if the trumpets blare again in October, he has made enough progress to at least give them something out of the bullpen.

“It’s tough,” Díaz said. “But at the same time, I’m always positive. I know when I click, I click.”