One of the top relievers in baseball is joining the defending champions.
Former New York Mets closer Edwin Díaz signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers this week for three years and $69 million. The deal sets a record for average annual value for reliever contracts.
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Because Díaz rejected a one-year, $22.025 million qualifying offer, the Mets will receive a compensation pick after the fourth round of the 2026 MLB Draft. The Dodgers will lose their second- and fifth-highest selections in the draft and $1 million from their international bonus pool, per MLB Pipeline.
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Díaz was easily the top arm on the bullpen market this offseason, ranking No. 11 on Yahoo Sports’ list of top 50 free agents, 16 places ahead of the next reliever. That reliever happens to be Devin Williams, whom the Mets gave three years and $51 million last week and who will now replace Díaz.
The 31-year-old Díaz opted out of the remaining two years and $37 million on his Mets contract in early November, setting him up to enter free agency after winning NL Reliever of the Year honors for the second time of his career.
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Soon after opting out, Díaz bluntly put his odds of returning to the Mets at 50/50. We now know how that worked out.
The Dodgers add the market’s top arm to an iffy bullpen
Despite winning the World Series, the Dodgers’ bullpen was an expensive problem in 2025. Their solution is apparently to make it even more expensive.
Closing out games wasn’t supposed to be a problem for the club after they handed a total of $111 million to Tanner Scott, Blake Treinen and Kirby Yates, with Scott receiving the bulk of that money at four years and $72 million. It was a prime example of intentional overkill, a rich team spending big because it could.
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Then all three pitchers turned in some of the worst seasons of their careers.
By the World Series, Yates was out for the season due to injury, and the Dodgers had decided Scott wouldn’t come back from a surprise abscess excision in his lower body. Treinen still being in the mix was a head-scratcher — he had a 6.75 ERA in the playoffs — and his use basically boiled down to the Dodgers having zero solid options.
Scott and Treinen remain under contract for next year, with potential late-inning contributors Anthony Banda, Alex Vesia, Brock Stewart and Brusdar Graterol all still in the L.A. bullpen behind a dominant rotation.
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With another ring in hand, the Dodgers clearly didn’t want a repeat of the 2025 playoffs, so they spent even more to land the reliever every team wished it had in 2025. But of course, Díaz isn’t without his red flags.
What will the Dodgers get from Edwin Díaz?
Among pitchers with at least 50 innings in 2025, Díaz led the NL in ERA (1.63) and strikeout rate (38%), as well as numerous ERA predictors such as FIP (2.28), xFIP (2.49) and SIERA (2.18). He also ranked a close second in WHIP (0.87) and batting average against (.162). Simply put, he was dominant, and every number under surface level backed up what fans were seeing.
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That made opting out of what had previously been the largest reliever contract in MLB history — five years, $102 million — an easy decision for Díaz. However, the Mets’ return for that money also reflects the risks of giving relievers huge paydays.
The Mets got an incredible year from Díaz in 2025. In 2024, they got an iffy year in which he blew seven saves, lost his closer role and posted a 3.52 ERA while dealing with a shoulder impingement. In 2023, they got nothing because Díaz blew out his patellar tendon while celebrating a win with his Puerto Rican teammates in the World Baseball Classic before the MLB season even began.
Three seasons: one good, one bad, one ugly. And now Díaz is three years older, which only increases the risk at an infamously risky position.
However, you could argue that WBC injury was a freak accident and that 2025 showed Díaz has fully overcome what was ailing him in 2024. When the potential reward is what Díaz did in 2025 or in 2022, when he won his other NL Reliever of the Year award, contenders will pay big money to have a pitcher like him on the mound to close out a playoff game.
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What else could the Dodgers do?
Díaz is a significant get for the Dodgers, but their offseason is by no means complete. With their bullpen crowded and their rotation already elite, any other major move would likely come in the lineup, specifically the outfield.
The team’s Opening Day outfield currently works out to something like Andy Pages or Tommy Edman in center field, Teoscar Hernández in right field and some mix of Alex Call or Ryan Ward in left.
All of those options present some reason for concern. Pages just posted one of the worst postseasons in the history of baseball, eventually getting benched in the World Series. He was good in the regular season, but will face questions in 2026. Hernández has delivered clutch hits in two years with L.A., but has had enough defensive issues in right that a move to left field seems warranted. There has also been plenty of trade chatter around him this offseason.
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Edman is recovering from a recent ankle surgery and might not be able to handle center field. Call is best used as the right-handed side of a platoon. Ward has raked in Triple-A but has no MLB experience and isn’t a top prospect.
So be ready for the Dodgers to make a significant move somewhere in the outfield. Because this team is making it clear they aren’t going to settle in an area where improvements are available.