Dodgers Considered Favorite to Sign All-Star Closer With Devin Williams Off the Market

The Dodgers' roster features an obvious need, and the 2025-26 free agent market features an obvious strength. The Dodgers' needs at the back end of the bullpen are just as obvious as the solution.

However, three free agent closers have already found homes for 2026. The Atlanta Braves re-signed Raisel Iglesias. The Baltimore Orioles signed Ryan Helsley. Monday, according to mulitple reports, the Mets swooped in to sign former Yankees closer Devin Williams to a $51 million contract.

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Where does that leave the Dodgers?

While plenty of options abound, the consensus best reliever available is three-time All-Star Edwin Diaz.

From 2016-25, Diaz has saved 253 games for the Seattle Mariners and New York Mets. He's backed up his 2.82 career ERA (144 ERA) with a 1.04 WHIP and 14.5 strikeouts per nine innings. He was recently awarded the Trevor Hoffman Award, given to the best reliever in the National League, for the second time in the last four seasons.

While Mets owner Steve Cohen should have the money to bring Diaz back if he so chooses, the Dodgers have the greater need now that Williams is headed to Queens. The Dodgers were a bottom-10 team last season in terms of reliever losses and blown saves — an unusual position for the World Series champions.

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At least one Mets beat writer believes that makes the Dodgers, not the Mets, the favorites to sign Diaz.

"I've been consistent from the start of the offseason in saying I'll believe David Stearns will pony up huge money for a reliever when I see it," MLB.com's Anthony DiComo wrote in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" thread. "That's not necessarily saying Stearns won't re-sign Diaz, it's just an acknowledgement that doing so would break from what's appeared to be a career-long philosophy: Don't invest too much money in relief pitchers, regardless of who they are.

"Tack on the fact that Stearns has already demonstrated a willingness to be unsentimental, and it becomes clear to me that resigning Diaz is no sure thing. And if everything I wrote above is true, I'd have to consider the Dodgers the favorite to grab him, if for no other reason than that they are the Dodgers."

MLB Trade Rumors predicts Diaz will receive a four-year, $82 million contract. The Athletic's Tim Britton predicted four years and $84 million for the 31-year-old. Neither outlet factors in the possibility of opt-outs or deferrals into those predictions, but such incentives could figure into the Dodgers' calculus with any free agent.

Last winter, the Dodgers signed the offseason's top free agent closer, Tanner Scott, to a four-year, $72 million contract. Diaz should command more money if not more years, given his longer history of success as a closer. He's a year older than Scott was last January, so a four-year deal isn't necessarily out of line with what his camp could be seeking in free agency.

After Diaz, the free agent market for closers includes Robert Suarez and Pete Fairbanks — and a big dropoff to the next cluster of talent.

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