For a sport that obsesses over mountains of data, and analyzes players on the most minuscule of scales, baseball can still be full of mysterious performance issues and physiological disconnects.
The one facing the Dodgers right now: What to make of Edwin Díaz’s decreased fastball velocity early this season?
Coming off his blockbuster $69 million signing over the winter, Díaz has begun his debut Dodgers campaign facing a familiar –– yet disconcerting –– battle with his heater, which has averaged only 95.8 mph in his first six appearances.
That’s a notable drop from the 97.2 mph the pitch averaged last year. It was especially glaring during the three-run blown save he suffered Friday night, in an outing also marred by several hanging sliders.
Thus, as manager Dave Roberts said Sunday, the team is taking a more cautious approach with the right-hander’s workload for now, “treading lightly” with how they use him as he works to regain his typically dominant form.
“It’s a day-to-day thing,” said Roberts, who bypassed Diaz in a save situation Saturday following his 23-pitch effort the night prior. “Just trying to also, like we’ve done many times, play the long game with our guys.”
Diaz’s availability for Sunday’s game, Roberts added, would depend on how he felt after a pregame throwing session.
For Díaz, such early-season fastball problems aren’t anything new.
Since returning from a knee injury that cost him all of the 2023 season, he has dealt with a drop in fastball velocity at the start of each of the last two years.
In April 2024, the pitch averaged just 96.9 mph, before ticking up to 98 mph by June. Last April, Díaz’s heater was only sitting at 96.3 mph, before getting back to 98 mph in August.
“The last couple years, it’s been like that,” the 32-year-old veteran said. “It starts kinda slow. And then as the season goes, my velo comes back to normal.”
Because of that, Díaz said Sunday morning that he was confident his stuff would eventually improve –– even though he couldn’t put his finger on exactly why his fastball has become a recurring early-season problem.
One factor he unequivocally ruled out: An injury, repeatedly stating that he feels “great” physically while refuting a suggestion he might be dead-armed after pitching in this spring’s World Baseball Classic.
“I don’t think my arm is dead,” Díaz said. “It’s just something that I’ve been bothered by the last couple years getting into it. And then, like I said, when the season starts going, I feel way better.”
For now, the Dodgers are trying to be similarly optimistic.
While Roberts said Díaz’s issues weren’t mechanical, he also downplayed any injury worries Sunday, saying his concern level was low and that “it’s not an IL thing we’re talking about.”
Instead, he framed the Dodgers’ approach as simply an opening-month precaution, explaining that the team wants to be careful with its closer until he starts throwing the ball as advertised once again.
“I am confident right now,” Roberts said. “Everything I hear is that he feels fine. I think for me, you hear it, you want to completely trust it. But then you’re also looking at the gun and making sure. So we’re kind of treading lightly and giving him the benefit of the doubt. But still watching.”