There is rightful panic among Dodgers fans over current Edwin Díaz situation

New York Mets fans smiled from ear to ear on Friday night as the Los Angeles Dodgers' $69 million closer, Edwin Díaz, blew his first save as a member of his new team. Feelings on Díaz's outing inside Dodgers Nation were far different, of course, but it's even more concerning than you'd expect.

While Dodgers fans initially brushed off Díaz's failed night against the Texas Rangers as an obvious outlier among his otherwise solid season thus far, that wasn't the thought process within the Dodgers' organization. For LA's leadership, Díaz's blown save was an important data point in what has quickly become a troublesome, growing narrative about his diminished velocity in 2026.

Díaz's four-seamer has suffered a dip in average velocity so far this season down to 95.8 mph from its 97.2 mph level in 2025, per The Athletic's Fabian Ardaya. Once Ardaya's piece made its rounds, Dodgers fans' feelings on Díaz quickly shifted to panic. "Is Díaz hurt? What's going on?"

Edwin Díaz's velocity drop has Dodgers fans worried

By all accounts, Díaz is, in fact, not injured. That's kind of a bittersweet development for the Dodgers. On one hand, it's nice to have a healthy Díaz. But if he's not hurt, that means there's no immediate answer for why he's not throwing as hard, which only leads to more uncomfortable questions.

The Dodgers are trying their best to figure out what's going on with Díaz in the early going of this season (and his Dodgers career). According to Ardaya, manager Dave Roberts decided to scale back Díaz's usage in the Rangers series amid this investigation, presumably as a safeguard against potential fatigue or an injury that LA and/or Díaz simply haven't discovered yet. That language escalated to Díaz being "day-to-day."

Roberts called Díaz's velocity drop "pretty significant." Díaz, however, is saying that he's started every season this way since he tore his knee in 2023. According to Díaz, it now takes him a bit longer to rev up his velocity at the start of the year — over the course of the regular season, he feels better and better, to the point that his velocity is humming at its normal levels by later stages in the campaign. Notably, Díaz's fastball is still .5 mph slower than it was last April.

Díaz has told the Dodgers' staff that his velo drop will work itself out

The Dodgers' staff is reportedly pushing Díaz to be honest if he does indeed feel any semblance of an injury, but Díaz claims he feels fine. Perhaps it is just a matter of getting warm as the season progresses.

Luckily, the Dodgers are the Dodgers, which means they have plenty of depth to make up for any missed time that Díaz might have to endure, whether through Roberts' decision-making or the emergence of a real ailment. Blake Treinen and Alex Vesia have been performing; Tanner Scott, too. Dodgers fans won't feel completely okay about Díaz until they see that velo reaching its $69 million level, but there's still time for this narrative to end happily, and Díaz's remarks make it sound like that's precisely what'll happen in the coming months.

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