Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
In an attempt to help with the Dodgers’ shaky bullpen, the team has acquired right-hander Alexis Diaz from the Reds for right-handed minor-leaguer Mike Villani. Evan Phillips was transferred to the 60-day injured list to create a 40-man roster spot for Diaz.
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Diaz, 28, is a former All-Star closer for the Reds and the bother of another All-Star closer in the Mets’ Edwin Diaz. In his first two seasons, he pitched to a 2.47 ERA, 3.42 FIP and boasted an 18.4 K-BB%. He made the All-Star team in 2023 after finishing fifth in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2022. However, he has fallen on hard times ever since.
His 2024 looks decent enough on paper — 3.99 ERA, 4.57 FIP, 28 saves — but it was the beginning of his extreme regression. He saw basically everything back up, from his walk rate to his strikeout rate to his whiff rate and, most concerningly, his velocity.
| Year | 4-Seam Velo |
| 2022 | 95.7 |
| 2023 | 94.5 |
| 2024 | 93.9 |
| 2025 | 93.0 |
What’s weird is, not counting the extremely small 87-pitch sample size this season, it didn’t look like it got hit around as much as one might think. He sports a career .181 BAA, .268 SLG against, .294 wOBA against, and a 28.8 Whiff%. He’s always been in the 99th or 100th percentile when it comes to extension (7.7 feet), so that helps a closer-to-average-fastball play up and be above average.
Here's the slot drop year-over-year, starting in 2022: pic.twitter.com/SXN6P4k0Fa
— Remi Bunikiewicz (@RBunikiewicz) May 29, 2025
Funny enough, he actually started throwing his slider a bit harder. That was his money pitch. Even when he struggled a bit in ’24, he still produced relatively solid results with his slider. In 2023, his slider was +13 run value and was one of the best among relievers. He has seen his slider move less and less horizontally since ’22. Here are the numbers in inches to his glove side (first base side):
- 2022: 5.7
- 2023: 4.1
- 2024: 3.1
- 2025: 2.6
For a pitcher who relies so heavily on his slider to get whiffs and induce weak contact, losing that horizontal movement (as well as some vertical movement) isn’t going to be conducive to success. And that could be partially attributed to a decrease in spin rate, even if just slightly.
He does allow his fair share of fly balls to the pull side which, coupled with a high walk rate, doesn’t bode well for him. Still, he does a decent job of limiting exit velo against and definitely has swing-and-miss stuff. Still, he needs to do a better job at commanding his pitches if he and the Dodgers have any chance of him regaining any of his former glory.
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This is a classic buy-low situation for the Dodgers. They gave up their 13th-round pick in last year’s draft in Villani, who has thrown just two innings in a Complex League so far. He’s a reliever in his own right, but to get Diaz for him seems like a steal. Sure, the Dodgers have to take on the remainder Diaz’s $4.5 million salary, but he has Minor League options, so the pressure to throw him right into the bullpen isn’t there. They have time to try to “fix” him, or at least try to make him a serviceable reliever again. With the way the Dodger bullpen has performed and been hit with injuries, this is the kind of move you’d expect them to make.
