PHOENIX –– Blake Treinen made the road to redemption sound simple Saturday morning.
The Dodgers’ bullpen can learn from the struggles it endured last year. But that dark past is now something to forget.
“Nobody in this organization, in the seven years I’ve been here, has ever focused on negatives,” Treinen said. “Some teams might be like, ‘I can’t act like I did last year. I can’t do what I did last year.’ But we’re not gonna live in the past. Nobody lives in the past.”
Revisiting last season, of course, is not a fun exercise for many of the Dodgers’ returning relievers.
As a group, the team’s bullpen posted the 10th-highest ERA in the majors while blowing the 10th-most saves.
Previously trustworthy veterans including Treinen and Tanner Scott were a big part of the problem. Treinen suffered a career-worst 5.40 ERA while battling an elbow injury that sidelined him for 3.5 months over the summer. Scott succumbed to a 4.74 ERA while dealing with his own elbow problems, ultimately losing his role as de facto closer after going 23 for 33 in save opportunities.
Those flaws nearly sunk the Dodgers’ title-defense hopes, forcing the team to lean heavily on its starting rotation in the playoffs and convert Roki Sasaki into an emergency postseason closer.
But now, the club is banking on a bounce-back performance from its new-look –– yet largely familiar –– relief corps.
“They’re going to be better this year,” manager Dave Roberts declared Saturday.
It starts, in many ways, with Treinen and Scott.
While the arrival of new $69 million closer Edwin Díaz should provide the Dodgers’ bullpen with backend stability, getting Treinen and Scott back on track will be just as important.
In a perfect world, they could be two of the Dodgers’ primary set-up men. Díaz’s presence should also allow Roberts to deploy them in more matchup-friendly situations.
First, however, they’ll have to rectify the issues that plagued them last year –– and forget the frustrations that came along with them.
For Scott, the task this year will be staying away from the middle of the strike zone, a bugaboo that resulted in him allowing 11 home runs in 2025 (tied for ninth most among all MLB relievers).
He said he’s done a “deep dive” with pitching coaches Connor McGuiness and Mark Prior this spring to diagnose flaws in his delivery, which he believed contributed to his poor command and his late-July elbow injury.
Compared with last spring, which Scott described as a “sprint” because of the Dodgers’ early start in Japan, he also feels like he has more time to make sure the changes stick.
In his Cactus League debut Saturday, he offered some early encouraging signs by throwing a scoreless inning in which he located his pitches around the edges of the zone.
“(I’m) just making sure my stuff is playing exactly how I want it to be,” Scott said. “Everything starts with delivery.”
For Treinen, one big focus will be recalibrating his typically lethal sweeper. Last season, the pitch failed to induce as much swing-and-miss as usual, a problem some people around the team believed stemmed from slight changes in his arm slot.
On Thursday, Treinen also had an encouraging start to spring play, throwing a scoreless inning that included two strikeouts, the first coming on a swing-and-miss sweeper.
“Last game was great, results-wise,” Treinen said. “There’s still a lot to improve on. But that’s good, when I feel like I was OK but the results were good.”
There are other middle relievers the Dodgers will count on this season.
Alex Vesia remains another top left-handed option, while Jack Dreyer will look to build upon his rookie success. The team is hoping to get production from Brock Stewart, Evan Phillips and Brusdar Graterol once they return from injuries (though Graterol’s status is uncertain now, as he continues to battle shoulder problems that sidelined him all of last season). Ben Casparius, Will Klein and Edgardo Henriquez are also battling for depth roles (though Henriquez has looked shaky in his first couple spring outings, struggling to command the ball).
“I mean, our whole lineup is stacked,” Scott said of the bullpen. “Anyone can pitch in any spot.”
Still, outside of Díaz, no other relievers on the club have the kind of track records that Treinen and Scott do.
That’s the past experience they’ll try to tap into this season –– leaving the failures of last year, for both themselves and the bullpen at large, in the rearview mirror as they look forward now.
“Wash it, flush it like a toilet, and just let it be,” Scott said. “Wasn’t that great last year. But it’s a new year.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
