The Dodgers placed Edwin Díaz on the 15-day injured list with right elbow loose bodies and said he will have surgery to address the problem. He is expected to return in the second half of the season, with a report indicating he could miss about three months.
Jake Eder was recalled to take Díaz’s spot on the active roster, a quick fix for a bullpen that has already been asked to absorb another hit. The move came after Díaz’s latest appearance at Coors Field, where he entered in the bottom of the eighth with the Dodgers down 6-4, faced four batters, allowed three hits and a walk, and was removed without recording an out. That outing followed a rocky stretch that started on April 10, when he entered a 7-4 game in the ninth inning against the Rangers and gave up three runs, allowing Texas to tie it up.
Díaz’s injury comes after a season in which he had still been productive by the numbers, even as his velocity slipped. He tossed 66 1/3 innings with a 1.63 earned run average in 2025, along with a 38% strikeout rate, an 8% walk rate and a 48.4% ground ball rate. But his fastball averaged 95.7 miles per hour this year, down from 97.2 miles per hour last year, and that drop had become harder to ignore before the elbow issue surfaced.
The Dodgers signed Díaz to a three-year, $69 million deal in the offseason, hoping he would help patch one of the few weak spots in a bullpen that remained a concern even after a strong 2025 season from him. The club has won the past two World Series and had been trying to add more certainty in the late innings, though manager Dave Roberts had already leaned more heavily on starters during the postseason when relief work became less reliable.
For the Dodgers, the immediate question is how long they can hold together the back end of games without the arm they paid to stabilize it. For Díaz, the next step is surgery, followed by a recovery that should put him back on the mound only after the season’s midpoint.
