It’s time to give Tanner Scott his flowers after lowkey resurgence for Dodgers

Tanner Scott's struggles in his debut Los Angeles Dodgers season were well documented. Fans have since learned from Scott's remarks that he placed impossible expectations on himself, leading to an off year. But now that we're in a new season, with a clean slate, 2025 is in the past for good, and Scott might be so back.

The left-hander has looked like his All-Star self so far in 2026, especially in high-leverage situations for the Dodgers. Scott's outing on April 10 against the Texas Rangers was a prime example. He entered the game at Dodger Stadium with LA owning a 5-4 lead in the eighth inning. Scott proceeded to retire the side — featuring two strikeouts — using just 10 pitches. That's the elite closer-type stuff that Scott made a name for himself with.

Tanner Scott is looking like himself again for Dodgers

Fans already believe that Scott may have returned to the best version of himself. Entering April 17, he had a glorious 1.04 ERA, 0.58 WHIP, eight strikeouts, and zero walks through 8 2/3 innings of work this season. Maybe the Dodgers don't need Edwin Díaz, after all.

Díaz hasn't appeared for the Dodgers since April 10 as LA monitors his troubling drop in velocity. He wasn't employed against his former team, the New York Mets, in a recent three-game series, but the Dodgers didn't miss Díaz. Their offense destroyed New York's pitching, rendering the need for a closer in the series nearly obsolete. And when a late-inning arm was needed, Scott delivered, tallying two innings of one-hit, scoreless baseball across two games in the series.

Dodgers' unlikely vision for Tanner Scott is coming true

The Dodgers' leadership — Andrew Friedman, Brandon Gomes, and Dave Roberts — received some flak this past offseason for their seemingly disingenuous comments about Scott's approaching resurgence. But maybe LA's brain trust knew exactly what they were talking about with him.

That brain trust was called hypocritical for predicting a return to form for Scott while also going out and spending $69 million on Díaz, but this is the Dodgers we're talking about. Maybe they forecasted a good season for both closers and just wanted to have both on the roster because ... they can afford to.

In a wacky turn of events, Díaz might end up serving as a setup man for Scott when fall rolls around, who knows? The sample size of this season is still too small to definitively say that that will happen, but early signs have created the possibility.

LA doesn't ever feel the need to stick to its original plan. Look at how they completely re-worked Roki Sasaki's role in 2025. Díaz is still the closer for now, but if he proves to be inconsistent this season, and Scott keeps rolling, Roberts won't be afraid to mix things up.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow