Coming off back-to-back World Series titles doesn’t mean the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to sit on the sidelines in free agency, especially with how leaky their bullpen was throughout the 2025 season.
Per ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez, the Dodgers are going to be keeping an eye on relievers who are “capable of handling the ninth inning on a championship team” now that free agency has begun.
The two biggest names who fit that criteria are Edwin DÃaz and Devin Williams. Gonzalez also cited a number of other options for the Dodgers who will likely be available on short-term deals, including Brad Keller, Robert Suarez and Raisel Iglesias to fill their bullpen void.
Gonzalez noted that DÃaz, who is reportedly seeking a deal similar to the five-year, $102 million contract he just opted out of with the New York Mets, could “scare away” the free-spending Dodgers because of the high price and draft pick they would have to forfeit since he received a qualifying offer.
Williams, on the other hand, is someone the Dodgers appear to be openly flirting with. The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya reported on Nov. 11 there is mutual interest between the two sides after the Dodgers attempted to trade for him last offseason before the Milwaukee Brewers sent him to the New York Yankees.
In an interview with SNY after the trade to the Yankees happened, Williams even admitted he “thought” he was going to end up in Los Angeles based on what he was being told.
Despite investing heavily in their relief corps last offseason by signing Tanner Scott (four years, $72 million) and Kirby Yates (one year, $13 million), the Dodgers ranked 21st in bullpen ERA (4.27).
Scott had the worst season of his career with 4.74 ERA in 61 appearances. Roki Sasaki’s emergence as a late-inning option in October opens up a lot of possibilities for him going into 2026, but the Dodgers are planning for him to return to the rotation.
Manager Dave Roberts clearly didn’t trust most of his relievers during the Dodgers’ playoff run. In the decisive Game 7 against the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series, five of the six pitchers used were players who started a majority of the games they appeared in during the regular season.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw six innings in Game 6, recorded the final eight outs in extra innings.
The Dodgers played 165 innings in the postseason. Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani accounted for 113 of them. Sasaki was the only other pitcher who threw more than eight innings (10.2).
Williams’ ERA with the Yankees was an unimpressive 4.79 in 67 games, but his peripheral numbers looked a lot better. His expected ERA was 3.09 with a chase rate of 35.0 percent and whiff rate of 37.7 percent.
With better luck on batted balls—his .296 BABIP was 29 points higher than his career rate—Williams could easily return to being one of the best late-inning relievers in MLB next season.