Dodgers flex with elite closer signing as Padres scramble for starting pitching

If you’re the Padres, this is exactly the kind of headline you didn’t need to see.

On Dec. 9, free-agent reliever Edwin Díaz and the Dodgers reportedly agreed to a three-year, $69 million deal. That’s a three-time All-Star, two-time NL Reliever of the Year coming off a 1.63 ERA and 28 saves in 2025, walking into a clubhouse that just won back-to-back World Series and is somehow still finding ways to “upgrade.”

As for the Padres, they’re still trying to figure out who’s starting games for them in April.

Dodgers flex with Edwin Díaz signing as Padres scramble to build a rotation

This move can feel so lopsided not just from a San Diego perspective, but pure baseball fan perspective too. Díaz is the kind of player you add when the hard work is done — when your rotation’s stacked, your lineup’s deep, and you’re down to tightening the screws in the last inning. The Dodgers are shopping for luxury items. The Padres are still buying studs and drywall.

Dylan Cease is gone. Michael King doesn’t look close to returning. Nick Pivetta’s name keeps popping up in trade rumors, which is both a compliment to his value and a terrifying thought for a club that already has too many question marks behind him. While the Dodgers are locking down the ninth, the Padres are staring at the second, third, and fourth spots in the rotation and trying to pencil in something that doesn’t look like “TBD.”

Díaz also reshapes the market in ways that don’t help San Diego. When a team like the Dodgers throws $69 million at a reliever, mid-rotation starters and innings-eaters see dollar signs. Suddenly, that “reasonable” three- or four-year deal for a No. 3 starter feels a tier more expensive than it did a week ago — and the Padres are already working with far less financial margin for error.

None of this means San Diego is doomed. It does, however, clarify the assignment. The Padres don’t need to chase the Dodgers when it comes to finances. They just need to come out of this offseason with a rotation that can survive 162 games and keep them afloat in the NL West.

The Dodgers just landed Edwin Díaz as a finishing touch. The Padres still have to build the thing.