In hindsight, Tanner Scott made it all sound so simple.

His performance during a disastrous 2025 season?

“Terrible,” he declared.

His mechanics during his debut Dodgers campaign?

“Awful all last year,” he acknowledged.

His biggest problem en route to posting a 4.74 ERA and 10 blown saves in 33 opportunities?

“I was missing middle-middle,” he quipped. “And anyone in the big leagues can hit middle-middle.”

His process for turning the page now?

“I washed it away,” he said. “Just move on to the next year.”

Move on, Scott has thus far in 2026 — showing early signs of a total reversal from the dismal form he displayed last season.

The rebound started in spring training, when the left-hander did a “deep dive” with the club’s pitching coaches to identify flaws in his delivery. It has translated to auspicious opening-month production, with the 10th-year veteran allowing one run in 12 appearances and striking out nine batters.

It’s all been much closer to what the Dodgers were expecting when they initially signed Scott to a four-year, $72 million contract last offseason.

And now, it could be crucial to the continuity of their bullpen in Edwin Díaz’s absence, with Scott getting a chance at redemption in his return to a de facto closer role.

Technically, the Dodgers are going closer-by-committee in the wake of Díaz’s elbow surgery. But when asked this week who would get the most save opportunities in the short term, manager Dave Roberts singled out Scott as the leading candidate.

That proved true Thursday, when Scott came trotting in to protect a three-run lead in the ninth against the Giants — the Dodgers’ first save opportunity since Díaz went down.

He responded by retiring the side in order, collecting his first save of the season to go along with four holds in his previous role as a set-up man.

“You can see it from his demeanor, the confidence that he has on the mound,” Roberts said afterward. “The throws are convicted. You’re seeing the swings that are kind of off the barrel. So, yeah, I feel really confident and comfortable with Tanner.”

The Dodgers have been bullish on Scott since the start of the offseason. They felt his 2025 decline was caused by underlying physical problems, most notably an elbow issue that sidelined him for a month last summer. 

According to assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness, Scott’s delivery last year “kind of got out of whack.” His arm slot wasn’t consistent. His slider didn’t have enough late bite to effectively play off his fastball. And when he made mistakes over the middle of the plate, opposing hitters were able to punish them, resulting in a career-high 11 home runs allowed.

Now, however, Scott’s mechanics are in a “much better place,” McGuiness said.

He is still filling up the strike zone, throwing balls over the plate even more often than he did a season ago. But this time, his improved mechanics are allowing him to better sequence his pitches. Instead of missing down the middle, he is “moving the ball around a lot better,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers will need that to remain the case until Díaz returns in the second half of the season.

They might not have planned on having Scott be their primary ninth-inning option again. But now that he’s been handed an unexpected chance to redeem himself after last year, “I hope that that’s part of his math as well,” Roberts said.

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