Why Cincinnati Reds' Alexis Diaz 'not thinking about' closer status

GOODYEAR, Arizona – If Alexis Díaz is starting to feel the mortality of his role as the Cincinnati Reds’ closer – or even his place on the Reds Opening Day roster – he’s not showing it when talking to him off the mound.

But on the mound Friday against the Chicago White Sox, he showed command issues again even as manager Terry Francona said he observed “a ton of life” on his pitches.

Francona said he expects Díaz to pitch one more inning Sunday in the Reds’ final Cactus League game before the team breaks camp.

Whether Díaz survives the final bullpen cut to head north with the club, it looks at least doubtful the 2023 All-Star will be handed the closer job again as the season opens under new management on Thursday.

Alexis Diaz, shown last season when he saved 28 games with a 3.99 ERA, labored through a shutout inning against the Chicago White Sox Friday. Half his 20 pitches were balls, he allowed a hit and hit a batter.

After pitching a scoreless inning Friday in which he threw half his 20 pitches for balls (plus an 11th ball charged on a pitch clock violation), he was asked if he thought he might have lost his closer job.

“I’ve always been a person that I’m going to go out there and whatever inning that they throw me in, and I will be out out there doing the best to my ability to get the job done,” he said in Spanish through team interpreter Jorge Merlos. “I’m not thinking about, ‘Oh, are they going to change me in or out of the closer role?’ All I’m thinking about is going out there and giving the best of my ability to get the team to win that day.”

Díaz, who struggled down the stretch in 2023 and all of last year, hasn’t pitched a clean inning this spring. And after his worst outing March 15, he worked with pitching coach Derek Johnson on some delivery issues and pitched in a minor-league game earlier in the week before

Friday he returned to a big-league mound with a better mindset.

“I’ve just had a lot of conversations with DJ. We’ve been in constant communication,” he said, “and he’s putting me back in my better mental state of health. I think those have really helped out with these last two innings I’ve had.”

Díaz got a late start to his game schedule because the team chose to “slow play” his work after he felt a “tug” of his hamstring during an early-camp fielding drill. He and team officials downplayed it as something that didn’t rise to the level of becoming an injury.

And on Friday, Díaz said, “I feel really good. I feel really healthy. Physically I feel good. Hamstring-wise there’s no issues. I’m feeling great.”

Alexis Diaz, shown last September, says any problems he's had have not been physical. “I feel really good. I feel really healthy. Physically I feel good," he said after his outing Friday.

In fact, he said a sign of that good health is he throwing harder this spring than he has in previous spring trainings.

The only hiccup Friday was the command during an inning that began with a glitch in his PitchCom device and the pitch-clock violation during a sequence in which he did not immediately understand the umpire and eventually had Francona leave the dugout to help sort it out.

“It was kind of an odd start of the inning,” Francona said. “We were just trying to get that straightened out. He threw more balls than strikes. Saying that, his ball had a ton of life to it. That part was good.”

Good enough to secure his status on the roster and in his role?

When the Reds reassigned left-hander Joe La Sorsa to the minor-league side of camp Friday, it left 14 healthy pitchers in camp for 13 spots, with Ian Gibaut still in the mix for a spot.

“I feel good. This team has felt like my home,” Díaz said when asked about concerns he might have over his roster status. “They’ve had a ton of conversations with me over the last couple weeks. Coming into this final week, I’m starting to make those adjustments to make sure that we’re ready to go for this Opening Day.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Why Cincinnati Reds' Alexis Diaz 'not thinking about' closer status

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