That Atlanta Braves took advantage of their place in the waiver wire staking to claim a copious number of players in August and September. That included one-time Cincinnati Reds closer Alexis Díaz, who had a couple of nice seasons, but has been wandering in the pitching wilderness since the start of 2024.

How acquired

A 12th-round draft choice by Cincinnati in 2015, the Braves claimed Díaz was claimed off waivers on September 7 after the Los Angeles Dodgers designated him for assignment. The Dodgers had picked him up in a trade from the Reds on May 29.

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What were the expectations?

During his first three MLB seasons, Díaz collected 75 saves in 190 games with the Reds. He was an All-Star in 2023 and finished fifth in the 2022 National League Rookie of the Year Award voting (won by Michael Harris II). His strikeout rate had dropped significantly in 2024 leading to concerns about his effectiveness going into 2025. Those concerns were then vindicated as he stunk it up for the Reds in six innings, and then got traded to the Dodgers and was a replacement-level reliever for nine innings. The Dodgers probably picked him up thinking he was an intelligent tweak away from dominant relief once more, but that is absolutely not what happened.

2025 results

The Reds placed Dìaz on the 15-day IL to start the season with a hamstring strain. After pitching in no fewer than 59 games per season during his three big league seasons, he appeared in only 18 games for three teams in 2025, spending the bulk of the season pitching in the minors, but struggling just as badly there as he did in the big leagues.

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In his time in the majors this season, he delivered -0.6 fWAR in 17 2/3 innings across 18 outings with a 8.15 ERA and 8.51 FIP. His expected stats were slightly better, but still unplayably bad, with a 6.71 xERA and 6.26 xFIP.

For the Braves, he pitched in three games, tossing 2 2/3 innings while allowing three earned runs, walking five and striking out five.

What went right?

Not much of anything for the now-29-year-old. While he does still have some of the best extension in the game and the spin rate on his fastball is in the 98th percentile, his fastball velocity has dropped and with only an additional slider in his pitch arsenal, he’s got little to fall back on. His prior success got him several opportunities, but he wasn’t able to capitalize on them.

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What went wrong?

Oof. It was a rough year for Díaz. He game up more than three home runs per nine innings and struck out a career-worst 20-percent of the batters he faced. While the velocity of his slider has remained unchanged throughout his career, 2025 saw another dip in his fast ball velocity to 93.5 mph, down by more than two mph from his rookie season.

Diaz was never exactly a command artist as far as his slider was concerned, but 2024 marked a turning point in that the pitch became highly inconsistent — and 2025 was somehow worse, while the command problems started affecting his now-probably-too-slow-for-a-two-pitch-reliever four-seamer as well.

He didn’t really have a notably good appearance for the Braves (in all of three tries), but his Braves debut was awful: he entered a one-run game, walked three of the six batters he faced, and hit another. The last of those walks, to Dansby Swanson, came on five pitches with the bases loaded.

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2026 outlook

The Braves outrighted Díaz off their 40-man roster on October 1, 2025, and he elected free agency. His results were awful in 2025, but the underlying number declined significantly in 2024. He may find it difficult to land a big league job, but a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training is not out of the question — especially if he is able to build back some of the velocity he lost off his fastball.

A reunion with the Braves seems unlikely, but never-say-never with Atlanta and past pitchers.

His projections will probably bake in some of his early-career success and he might look like a guy that could bounce back to a reasonable level on paper, but there’s clearly something impeding his ability to return to 2022-2023 levels, and teams may shy away considering the Dodgers cut him loose.