Dodgers naming an official closer is kind of a slap in the face to Evan Phillips

The Dodgers didn't really need to sign Tanner Scott to a contract that makes him the third highest-paid reliever in baseball this year, but they did it because they could. The same can also be said about their follow-up signing of Kirby Yates, but it's pretty clear that the Dodgers don't believe that excess is a thing — or, at the very least, they don't think it's a bad thing.

Adding Scott and Yates means the Dodgers have four potential closers going into 2025, including Michael Kopech and Evan Phillips, who racked up 15 and 18 saves respectively last season. Phillips had been doing the job for LA the longest; he closed 36 games for 24 saves in 2023.

Because the Dodgers added so much backend talent on top of what they already had, it felt like they were trending toward using a dynamic, unpredictable bullpen, much like they did in the postseason. After all, they'd hesitated to call Phillips their closer going in 2024, even though that's the role he was functioning in almost full-time.

However, Dave Roberts told Jim Bowden on MLB Network Radio that the team expected Scott to "get the brunt of the saves to start the season."

Dodgers name Tanner Scott their closer after a year of hesitating to give the role to Evan Phillips

Last year, ahead of Opening Day, Roberts said about Phillips pretty much the exact same thing he said about Scott: that he expected him to get the brunt of the saves to start the season. However, he always stopped short of calling him their closer. Maybe that was a good instinct from Roberts; Phillips got out of the gate well last season but had a shaky June (3.27 ERA), horrible July (11.74) after mostly being removed from full-time closing duties, and a not much better September (5.40).

Still, Phillips gave the Dodgers an outstanding 2023 as their de facto closer — 61 1/3 innings, 2.05 ERA — and it was always a little weird that management always stopped short of just calling him what he was. It must be about the money, though; Scott is making $16 million in 2025 to Phillips' $6.1 million, and a guy who's making quite as much as Scott probably expects to land in a certain role.

Given the money involved and Phillips' regression last year, it makes sense, but it still might sting for a guy who never fully got his flowers when he was at his best.