Edwin Diaz offer from dark horse suitor proves Dodgers are still baseball’s No. 1 destination

Edwin Díaz had options in free agency –– plenty of them –– and he still chose the Los Angeles Dodgers. That tells you everything.

The Atlanta Braves — a National League rival who has fallen on hard times of late, but knows a thing or two about building winners — reportedly offered Díaz a five-year contract. Five years. That’s not a courtesy call. That’s a serious, aggressive offer from a team that expects to be playing deep into October every season.

And Díaz still chose the Dodgers.

Not only did he choose them, he did so on a shorter deal — three years, $69 million — because Los Angeles was willing to do what no one else would: push his average yearly value to $20 million after deferrals, blowing past what the Braves were comfortable offering.

That’s not just winning a bidding war. That’s winning the player’s trust.

Edwin Díaz is proof that when the Dodgers call, the league still listens

Let’s be clear: this wasn’t simply a case of Díaz fleeing dysfunction or chasing the last dollar at any cost. His former team, the New York Mets were in it (or at least they thought they were). The Braves were in it. Multiple contenders wanted the best available closer in baseball.

But the Dodgers separated themselves in the one way that matters most to elite players: they made Díaz feel like the final piece, not just another arm. They didn’t sell him on innings or saves. They sold him on leverage, October moments, and championships.

The Dodgers sold Díaz on the idea that his best pitches will be thrown with the season on the line — not in July, but in October. That’s what Los Angeles has become: the place where the biggest players come to maximize their legacy.

Anyone can throw years at a reliever. The Braves proved that. But the Dodgers understood the modern reality of elite closers: elite AAV matters more than raw length, especially when paired with smart deferrals that keep the competitive window wide open.

The Dodgers respected Díaz’s value. They paid him like the best closer in baseball. And they did it without mortgaging flexibility or asking him to sacrifice competitive ambition. That’s front-office confidence. That’s Andrew Friedman knowing exactly when to push chips into the middle.

The part that should sting for everyone else is that the Dodgers didn’t even need to outbid by years. They outbid by belief –– belief in winning, in development, in culture, in playing games that matter. A five-year offer from Atlanta should have made this complicated, but it didn't.

Díaz didn’t pick Los Angeles by accident. He picked it because the Dodgers are still the sport’s north star — the franchise everyone measures themselves against. Dark horse bidders can emerge, and big offers can be made. But in the end, the destination remains the same. Baseball’s best players still want to be Dodgers.