The Dodgers may have spent the season juggling names and roles at the back end of the bullpen, but Dave Roberts finally said what the numbers have been hinting at for a while: Tanner Scott is the guy.
That’s a notable turn for a club that signed Edwin Díaz to a three-year, $69 million deal on Dec. 9, 2025, and started the year with him as the undisputed closer. But Díaz has spent more time on the injured list than on the active roster, and when he was placed on the 15-day injured list Tuesday with a neck injury, his line was brutal: 18 runs allowed in 13.2 innings, an 11.85 ERA and a 2.56 WHIP.
Scott’s path has been far steadier. The left-hander has converted a team-high 18 saves in 20 chances, and his 2.28 ERA and 0.92 WHIP make him the Dodgers’ most reliable relief option, no matter which hand he throws with. Still, Roberts had kept Díaz in the ninth inning Monday against the Colorado Rockies, his final outing before the IL move, leaving at least some doubt about whether the role would shift once Díaz returned.
On Wednesday, Roberts cleared that up.
“When he’s right, his [fastball] is 96-98 [mph], and there is a really good slider in there,” Roberts said. “I think Tanner’s superpower is that he doesn’t really let things affect his emotions.
You could argue that he could have been the closer; should have been the closer. Nothing affects him once he steps on the field.
"Right now, it’s easy to say he’s our best reliever and most consistent reliever, and I certainly see him as our closer.”
It’s a familiar script for Roberts. He has long leaned toward patience with struggling closers rather than making a quick switch, a pattern that has run through his tenure with names like Kenley Jansen, Craig Kimbrel, Scott and Díaz.
Scott didn’t exactly lose the role last year in a clean handoff. He simply stopped getting the chances after Roki Sasaki joined the Dodgers’ bullpen. Then an injury got in the way, Scott was left off the Dodgers’ NL Division Series roster, and he never made it back.
Now the story has flipped. This time, Scott is the one benefiting from someone else’s struggles, and Roberts has made clear that the job is his even when Díaz gets healthy.
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