Dodgers call up forgotten early trade deadline acquisition as Edwin Díaz flails

Edwin Díaz spent over three months on the Dodgers' IL, but Dodgers fans are kind of wishing he stayed a little longer. Since returning in late July, LA's closer has given up five earned runs in four innings of work and has blown two saves. He was just barely bailed out of his latest failure against the Diamondbacks, when he gave up two consecutive triples in the bottom of the ninth, by a game-winning Shohei Ohtani infield single.

Whether fans like it or not, the Dodgers aren't going to remove Díaz from the closer role — at least not in name. In essence, though, might be a different story.

On Monday, Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reported the Dodgers were calling up fireballing former Rockies reliever Seth Halvorsen, who LA acquired on July 20 in exchange for outfielder Landyn Vidourek and former top prospect Nick Frasso.

Halvorsen has yet to yield a run in 6 1/3 innings pitched for Triple-A Oklahoma City and has eight strikeouts to two walks. His fastball is sitting at 98.8 MPH in the majors this year, making him one of the game's hardest-throwing relievers.

Dodgers call up former Rockies reliever Seth Halvorsen after early trade deadline deal

This has textbook Dodgers reclamation project written all over it. LA clearly sees a lot of potential in Halvorsen; they wouldn't have given up a top-30 prospect in Vidourek and a pitcher they were standing by in Frasso if not. Halvorsen was Colorado's No. 18 prospect last year, so he couldn't be written off by bad numbers in the majors so quickly — especially when he was pitching at Coors Field (though, strangely, he had better numbers in Denver than outside of it).

The back end of the Dodgers' bullpen has been hurting as of late. Díaz is the biggest issue, but Will Klein has also been sidelined with elbow discomfort and may need surgery, Alex Vesia has a 7.50 ERA in his last seven appearances, and Edgardo Henriquez has a 7.94 ERA in his last seven.

Tanner Scott and Jack Dreyer have both been solid, but LA is still clearly hurting for help.

This is to say nothing of the Dodgers' offense, which has lost four games in this recent 1-for-8 stretch by just one run, but if they're going to continue to not provide run support, LA is going to need all the help they can get in late innings.

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