{"id":101186,"date":"2025-05-29T18:59:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T22:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=101186"},"modified":"2025-05-29T19:19:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T23:19:21","slug":"reliever-alexis-diaz-traded-dodgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/29\/reliever-alexis-diaz-traded-dodgers\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers Acquire Reliever Alexis D\u00edaz from Reds to Bolster Bullpen Depth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Dodgers announced Thursday that they traded for right-handed reliever <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/diazal03.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alexis D\u00edaz<\/a> from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for 2024 draft pick pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=villan001mik,villan000mik&amp;search=Mike+Villani&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mike Villani<\/a>. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FabianArdaya\/status\/1928192758944051389\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">further reports<\/a> that Diaz will most likely report to Triple-A Oklahoma City. Right-handed reliever <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/phillev01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Evan Phillips<\/a> is headed to the 60-day injured list to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Diaz.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Dodgers acquired RHP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/diazal03.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alexis D\u00edaz<\/a> from the Cincinnati Reds for minor league pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=villan001mik,villan000mik&amp;search=Mike+Villani&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mike Villani<\/a>. In order to make room on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers transferred RHP Evan Phillips to the 60-day injured list.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Dodgers\/status\/1928199117294993414?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Reliever Alexis D\u00edaz Traded to Dodgers<\/h2>\n<h3>Dodgers Bullpen Leaking Oil<\/h3>\n<p>The Dodgers are in desperate need of effective relief arms. Their designated closer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/scottta01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tanner Scott<\/a> has blown three straight save opportunities and features a 4.62 ERA. This is not how Los Angeles drew it up after spending $72 million over four years on the left-hander. To be fair, Scott didn&#8217;t allow a run in his first 17 of 18 appearances. But that seems long ago and far away at the moment.<\/p>\n<h3>Another Reclamation Project?<\/h3>\n<p>For his part, D\u00edaz was once the Reds&#8217; closer and made the All-Star team as recently as 2023. However, his 96 mph fastball has dropped in speed in the intervening years. To make matters worse, his walk rate has increased precipitously. His hard contact rate has also jumped nearly 20 percent since being a high-leverage reliever a few years ago.<\/p>\n<h3>In Case of Emergency<\/h3>\n<p>The Dodgers find themselves short of right-handed relievers at the moment. Evan Phillips is still dealing with<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/02\/dodgers-pitchers-tony-gonsolin-evan-phillips-rehab-game\/\" target=\"_self\"> lingering pain in his forearm.<\/a> Manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/roberda07.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dave Roberts<\/a> said it&#8217;s &#8220;a little concerning.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kopecmi01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Kopech<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/08\/dodgers-michael-kopech-triple-a-rehab-start\/\" target=\"_self\">is on a rehab assignment<\/a> making his way back from a shoulder issue. He has yet to be effective in his appearances. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/y\/yateski01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kirby Yates<\/a> is dealing with a strained hamstring, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/treinbl01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blake Treinen<\/a> j<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/01\/dodgers-pitching-injuries-treinen-kopech\/\" target=\"_self\">ust started playing catch<\/a> after dealing with a forearm issue as well.<\/p>\n<p>It seems that Los Angeles can sign as many high-level relievers as they want, but they still can&#8217;t keep the injury bug away.<\/p>\n<p>The question remains: is the trade for D\u00edaz a stop-gap measure or is it the first of many moves for the Dodgers? We will see.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Reggie Hildred-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Dodgers announced Thursday that they traded for right-handed reliever Alexis D\u00edaz from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for 2024 draft pick pitcher Mike Villani. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic further reports that Diaz will most likely report to Triple-A Oklahoma City. Right-handed reliever Evan Phillips is headed to the 60-day injured list [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5226,"featured_media":101204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,28,1071,35],"tags":[5676,991,257,2154,2845,771,28976,5660],"class_list":["post-101186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dodgers","category-reds","category-mlb","category-news","tag-alexis-diaz","tag-blake-treinen","tag-dave-roberts","tag-evan-phillips","tag-kirby-yates","tag-michael-kopech","tag-mike-villani","tag-tanner-scott"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101186"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101206,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101186\/revisions\/101206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}