The Dodgers acquired former Reds All-Star closer Alexis Díaz on May 29, about a month after Cincinnati demoted him to Triple-A. It was an intriguing trade, given Díaz’s history of excellence and then steep decline over his last two seasons, but a harmless one (for now); the Dodgers sent unranked pitching prospect Mike Villani to the Reds in exchange.

It was sort of telling that the Dodgers sent Díaz to the minors first instead of having him join the major league club, even though the bullpen is constantly, desperately in need of help. The Dodgers have promoted relievers with less and/or worse major league experience than Díaz already, so it’d be fair to speculate that there was something particularly worrisome about his underlying metrics that made them hesitate.

However, Dave Roberts made it sound like it’s only a matter of time before Díaz gets another shot at the majors. He used terminology that kind of made it sound like Díaz was on a rehab assignment, saying, “I don’t know the timeline. I think that is really contingent on how soon he takes to some of the things that we see and how that goes. But I wouldn’t expect it to be too long before he joins us.”

Dave Roberts doesn’t know exactly when Alexis Díaz will join the Dodgers, but says it won’t be long

“How soon he takes to some of the things that we see and how that goes” is kind of gibberish, but we should probably just take it to mean that the Dodgers want to see if he’s actually still got some of that magic he showed off during his rookie season. He has yet to make an appearance in the minors, but his transactions log does note that he was optioned down to the ACL Dodgers after the trade.

So the Dodgers really might be treating this like a rehab assignment, albeit with higher stakes for Díaz. They could always keep him in Triple-A if he doesn’t live up to expectations, but the Dodgers aren’t exactly promoting the cream of the crop.

At least Díaz does have that history of greatness behind him, unlike a lot of the pitchers the Dodgers have resorted to using. He doesn’t even have to be exactly as good as he was 2022 or 2023; he just needs to be decent enough to hold the fort down until the rest of the bullpen can get right.