The Dodgers announced that right-hander Edwin Díaz has been placed on the 15-day injured list with right elbow loose bodies. A subsequent announcement said that he will have surgery to address the issue and is expected to return in the second half of the season. Reportedly, he’ll miss about three months, which will put him in line for a return sometime around the All-Star break. Left-hander Jake Eder has been recalled to take Díaz’s spot on the active roster.
The status of Díaz has been a bit of a mystery for a while now, as he has struggled for the Dodgers while pitching with diminished velocity. His fastball has averaged 95.7 miles per hour so far this year, a notable drop from his 97.2 mph average last year. His results were fine through five outings but his sixth, on April 10th, was rough. He entered a 7-4 game in the ninth and surrendered three runs, allowing the Rangers to tie it up.
The Dodgers were able to walk that game off in the bottom of the ninth but Díaz became a question mark. He didn’t pitch in official game action for over a week after that, even though the Dodgers had some save situations. He was finally back on the mound last night but the results were again poor. He entered in the bottom of the eighth at Coors Field, with the Dodgers down 6-4. He faced four batters, allowing three hits and a walk, then was removed without recording an out.
On the one hand, it’s nice to have a diagnosis that explains his struggles, but any elbow issue for a pitcher is going to be worrisome. Losing him for three months is going to be a blow. He has been one of the best closers in recent history and was just signed to a huge contract in the offseason. The Dodgers gave him a three-year, $69MM deal to scoop him away from the Mets.
The Dodgers have won the past two World Series but their 2025 title came despite a shaky bullpen. Manager Dave Roberts relied more and more on his starters as the postseason went along and the Dodgers just barely held on, as they almost lost to the Jays on a few occasions, going into extra innings in Game Seven.
The Díaz signing was supposed to patch over one of the club’s few weak spots as they look for a three-peat. Though Díaz isn’t quite as ridiculously dominant as he was a few years ago, he still had a great 2025 season, tossing 66 1/3 innings with a 1.63 earned run average 38% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 48.4% ground ball rate.
The Dodgers generally approach injuries with a long view. Their team is strong enough that they can feel quite good about their chances of making the postseason. They can have their players, particularly the pitchers, take their time to ensure they are healthy for the postseason. Given the three-month timeline, they can take that approach with Díaz. Ideally, he will be back in time to shake off some rust down the stretch and be in peak form for October.
Time will tell how that goes. If Díaz experiences any kind of setback or struggles to get in form once he is healthy, it could potentially impact how the Dodgers approach the trade deadline, which is on August 3rd this year.
For now, they will have to proceed without their big offseason bullpen investment. Tanner Scott, Alex Vesia and Blake Treinen could be candidates for picking up some save opportunities now. Scott is back in good form so far this year after a rough 2025. Vesia has picked up a few scattered saves over the years and has started 2026 with ten scoreless appearances. Treinen has past closing experience but isn’t out to a great start this year, with a 4.05 ERA thus far.
Alden González of ESPN reported that he would undergo surgery and be out about three months. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic first reported that some kind of procedure would take place. Jack Harris of the California Post first reported that the Dodgers would expect him to be back from that procedure during this season. Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
TJ
Larry: Another brilliant board certified orthopedic surgeon generously providing his expertise to the readers of this blog. Physical exam and imaging are superfluous, replaced by commenters on MLBTR. One wonders if Larry has even heard the aphorism: “It’s good to know what you don’t know”.
WOW
That’s Karma… no, that’s Kramer…
“right elbow loose bodies”
yikes
that doesn’t sound good
Sounds like code words for “needs a mental reset”
His elbow did appear to look larger recently. Not sure exactly how many loose bodies he can fit into it.
Can’t tell if serious or if tongue in cheek reference to Friedman/Roberts floating around in his elbow
Dont worry they will buy another closer. Unlimited money.
Being first to reply I must hit all of the usual reactions: deferred loose bodies, real expensive loose bodies, now they trade him to fill in the blank, Dodgers suck, loose bodies are killing the MLB, erc
You forgot to blame the World Baseball Classic
Darn I forgot that one
Bingo!
ugh
Gotta respect someone doing it old school and making it to Hollywood with loose bodies
😉
Sasaki time
Certainly isn’t working as a starter
Probably another phantom IL stint. He’ll be back in 15 days.
He’s having surgery
It’s phantom surgery. Some ghosts are going to cut him up.
maybe we can get the ghosts to instead reach in and remove them. like the flash and phasing :)
Announced after my comment.
oof that one hurts.
See you next year Edwin.
Edwin dodged a bullet with the Mets. No games to close
🤣
Poor Mets metsin’…not!
What does that even mean? “right elbow loose bodies”
A bone chip in the elbow, or “loose body,” is a small fragment of bone or cartilage that breaks off due to injury, overuse, or chronic conditions like osteochondritis dissecans
Probably means the same as “he will undergo some kind of procedure.”
Like what? Gall bladder surgery? Tonsillectomy? Those are some kind of procedure. Endless possibilities on this one.
Jimmy Hoffa is in his elbow.
Finally the Mets get lucky. Or else he’s still jinxed by association.
They don’t look lucky
I’ve heard that jinxes *can* transfer.
Say that 3 times out of
Rodon of the Yankees just had surgery for loose bodies. That’s pretty common. If that is all it is he would probably miss 2-3 months.
Back just in time to lose in the playoffs!
Both Waldrep and Schwellenbach of the Braves had similar procedures back in February and won’t be back until at least July. You could probably figure Diaz would be out just as long if not longer
Not really. Starters require a much longer build-up.
Bone spurs?
He could be president someday!
You have to wonder if the Mets knew something…or his agent did.
He had to take a physical so assuming the loose bodies were already in his elbow, the Dodgers knew about it
The big secret is that sport physicals is mostly just the new team reviewing existing medical records and determining risk, much like an insurance company. If you think Edwin Diaz or any other player goes through a full battery of tests and exams every time he signs a new contract you’re very mistaken. It’s unlikely they did a fresh MRI on his elbow, or re-scanned his Achilles to see if it’s fully healed. They just took the medical records from the Mets, looked at them, and then did a basic sports physical like you did in middle school. Any advanced tests on his elbow at that time are extremely unlikely unless they had reason for concern, which they didn’t and the player probably wouldn’t have agreed to as it would affect his value if it came out teams wanted speculative scans.
Pretty bizarre if they did considering they offered him 3 years $66m.
@Reds: I doubt the Mets had any idea about this. They offered him a very similar deal to the one he got from the Dodgers and felt spurned that he left. They wanted him back badly, which would be odd if they knew about his elbow issue.
If Heyman said that, I would take it with a grain of salt.
Mets interest in Diaz was widely reported. Stearns even said it.
Mets dodged a bullet big time!
The Dodgers closer woes continue.
Dodgers last week: “He’s not injured, just reduced velocity”….Dodgers this week: “Surgery is scheduled”
EdLose Diaz
Curious if that’s why Mets were ok losing him over $3M difference.
The Mets weren’t OK with losing him. Diaz didn’t give them a chance to counter-offer, which they probably would have done. Diaz just wanted to go to the Dodgers.
I read somewhere that Diaz felt disrespected with the Williams signing and just took the Dodgers offer and didnt come back to the mets. Also if i remember right is deferred and worth less in present day value even though the overall is higher dollars.
66M/3 is still a pretty solid I trust your elbow contract offer? 1M a year wasn’t the problem, nor the loose bodies, they both did their homework and this is something new I would imagine
Roki back to the bullpen suddenly makes a lot more sense but they have so many other starters in the system on the injured list. They can’t even move him right now.
Didnt Scott have injuries last season and Jansen seemed always hurt. Is it some kind of closer curse for the Dodgers or something?
Jansen only ever had 3 IL stints with the Dodgers during the regular season. Once in 2011, again in 2015, and a third time in 2018. However, he never missed an extended period of time.
2011, 2012, 2015 each about a month due to heart issues (about 2 in 2011) then yes again in 2018 for a couple of weeks for heart this doesnt include the day to days he had to rest due to same irregular heart condition.
Amazing he did so well with something like that.
“I’ll take $69M and no, I won’t be pitching”
Mariachis on hold
Injuries are part of the game even to the mighty dodgers. They will just go out and get a quality replacement that others can’t because they have the resources.
Probably part of his contract like the rest of the Dodgers as a signing incentive. Big names don’t have to perform until the final stretch and playoffs. If it works it works.
Oh well, Friedman might as well have thrown the millions into the Pacific Ocean. Money is no object for the Dodgers. I wonder if it will ever catch up to them?? I wonder if ownership will ever get tired of these huge contracts for players who end up sitting on the bench injured for a good portion of their duration?
Naw, it’s their strategy. They’re so deep they can just rest their best players for the playoffs. He’ll be slinging 99-100 as soon as they need him to.
He’s taking the Blake Snell approach to his dodgers tenure: rest up for the playoffs, little EdLose… your Timmy Trumpet mojo is gone.
I can’t read 66 posts but I’m sure a few of them are certain that David Stearns put the loose bodies in there himself while Diaz was sleeping.