If Alexis Diáz is starting to feel uncertain about his role as the Cincinnati Reds’ closer—or even his spot on the Opening Day roster—he isn’t letting it show when speaking off the mound.

However, on the mound Friday against the Chicago White Sox, Diáz again struggled with command, despite manager Terry Francona noting the “ton of life” on his pitches. Francona expects Diáz to pitch one more inning on Sunday in the Reds’ final Cactus League game before the team breaks camp.

While it remains unclear whether Diáz will survive the final bullpen cut and travel with the team, it seems unlikely that the 2023 All-Star will reclaim his closer role as the season begins under new management on Thursday.

In his scoreless inning on Friday, Diáz threw half of his 20 pitches for balls, plus an additional ball due to a pitch clock violation. When asked if he might have lost his closer job, he responded, “I’ve always been a person that I’m going to go out there and whatever inning they throw me in, I will give my best to get the job done. 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 my best to help the team win that day,” Diáz said in Spanish through team interpreter Jorge Merlos.

Diáz, who struggled in the final stretch of 2023 and throughout last year, has yet to pitch a clean inning this spring. After his worst outing on March 15, he worked with pitching coach Derek Johnson on delivery adjustments and pitched in a minor-league game earlier in the week. He returned to a major-league mound on Friday with a renewed mindset.

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

Diáz had a delayed start to his game schedule after the team decided to take it easy with his workload following a “tug” on his hamstring during an early-camp fielding drill. Both Diáz and the team downplayed it as a minor issue that didn’t qualify as an injury.

On Friday, Diáz added, “I feel really good. I feel really healthy. Physically I feel good. Hamstring-wise there are no issues. I’m feeling great.”

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.”