Edwin Díaz’s rehab assignment keeps trending the wrong way, and Sunday did nothing to calm the alarm bells.
The Dodgers closer, who signed a record-setting deal for a relief pitcher last offseason, is still stuck on the sidelines with neck inflammation after injuries have wiped out his first season in Los Angeles. On Sunday with Oklahoma City, Díaz labored through another rough outing: he faced eight batters and got only two of them out.
He allowed two singles, issued three walks, hit one batter and struck out one. By the time he exited, three runs were already in, and two of the three runners he left behind crossed the plate after he was gone.
The command wasn’t there again. Díaz threw just 13 strikes in 30 pitches, marking the third time in four rehab appearances that he has thrown more balls than strikes.
Over his last four games in Triple-A, covering the past eight days, he has given up six runs in 3 1/3 innings with seven walks, four strikeouts and a hit batter. That leaves the Dodgers with a decision to make over the final two weeks of the regular season, but the reporting here is blunt: Díaz has no place on any postseason roster this year, and it would make more sense to look ahead to 2027 than activate him for the stretch run.
While Díaz was fighting his mechanics, Kris Bubic was busy stacking zeros.
Bubic turned in 1 1/3 scoreless innings for Oklahoma City on Sunday, striking out three. The left-hander is a starter, but the Dodgers are grooming him for relief after acquiring him from the Kansas City Royals on August 3.
He’s currently on the 60-day injured list with elbow soreness and shoulder soreness, but the results on this assignment look a lot cleaner than Díaz’s. In six appearances over two weeks in Triple-A, Bubic has thrown 5 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing only two singles and two walks while punching out nine of the 21 batters he has faced.
That works out to a 42.9-percent strikeout rate.
There was also a big individual milestone in Double-A.
Jake Gelof finished off his regular season with his 34th home run on Sunday for Tulsa, a shot that set a modern-era Tulsa record dating back to 1932. He passed Tim Wheeler’s 2011 mark from the days when the Drillers were a Colorado Rockies affiliate.
Gelof, the Dodgers’ second-round pick in 2023 out of Virginia, put together the best pro season of his career, batting .271/.285/.565 with a 138 wRC+ while splitting time between third base, second base and first base. He also set a school record for home runs at Virginia.
Oklahoma City’s 14-game win streak came to an end in the process, as the Comets fell to the Sugar Land Space Cowboys 5-0. The five runs charged to Díaz were the only runs of the game.
Cole Irvin started and went 4 2/3 innings without a decision. The 32-year-old left-hander leads the Pacific Coast League in innings pitched with 134, ERA at 3.09 and wins with 12.
Ryan Fitzgerald accounted for two of Oklahoma City’s four hits, and all four were singles.
Tulsa closed its regular season with a loss to the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, but the Drillers still finished 88-50 and ended up with 10 more wins than any other team in the Texas League. They also got some playoff help on Sunday after High-A Great Lakes was eliminated Friday. Top-100 prospects Eduardo Quintero and Charles Davalan joined the roster for the postseason push, with Davalan picking up a hit and Quintero launching a two-run homer in his Double-A debut.
The Drillers open the Texas League playoffs on Tuesday, and Quintero turns 21 that day.
In the North Division best-of-3, Tulsa will open Game 1 at Springfield, the second-half winner, before the series shifts to Tulsa for Game 2 and, if needed, Game 3 on Thursday and Friday. Left-hander Adam Serwinowski starts Game 1 for Tulsa, while right-hander Yhoiker Fajardo gets the ball for Springfield.
In Other News...
Miguel Rojas Injury Scare Leaves Dodgers Facing An Infield Question
Miguel Rojas night against the Marlins ended early after a shoulder injury flared up and aggravated the labrum tear he has been dealing with for most of his career. For the Dodgers, it was the kind of scare that can ripple beyond one game, because Rojas has been a steady infield presence and one of the players the club leans on for stability when things get messy.
Rojas plans to get a cortisone injection so he can keep playing, but the situation still leaves Los Angeles with a familiar question about how long it can count on him at full strength. The Dodgers do have depth options to cover the spot if he needs time off, which softens the blow, yet this is still the sort of injury watch that can force a team to reshuffle quickly if the discomfort lingers. [Read more 🡒]
Dodgers Create An October Dilemma With Surprising Pitching Decision
The Dodgers kept their roster churn going ahead of the series with the Reds, optioning right-hander Emmet Sheehan to Triple-A even after a run of strong outings. In his place, Los Angeles brought up Paul Gervase to give the bullpen a fresh arm, another reminder of how aggressively the club is trying to manage every innings count as the regular season winds down.
Sheehans demotion creates an obvious wrinkle for October, since the move leaves him ineligible to rejoin the Dodgers before the end of the regular season unless another player gets hurt. For a team that values pitching depth as much as this one does, the decision adds another layer to how the staff will be lined up when the games start to matter most. [Read more 🡒]
Dodgers Fans May Not Realize How Close This Voice Came To Elsewhere
Todd Leitz has become such a familiar part of the game-day rhythm at Dodger Stadium that it is easy to forget how unlikely the path once looked. He has handled public address duties for the club for the last 11 seasons, but before that he was still working his way through the job market for one of baseballs most recognizable behind-the-scenes roles.
Long before he was introduced to Dodgers fans, Leitz was a finalist for the Padres PA announcer opening in 2014 and came up short. The experience still proved useful, though, because it gave him a better feel for what teams were looking for when he later auditioned for a part-time Dodgers position and ultimately landed the job that turned into a steady run in Los Angeles. [Read more 🡒]