Add The California Post on Google At first, Evan Phillips didn’t get what the big deal was.
“I thought it was just completely organic,” Phillips said.
Last year, Scott had a disastrous debut season as the Dodgers’ closer. He signed a $72 million free-agent contract, then posted a 4.74 ERA with 10 blown saves, four losing decisions and a career-worst negative-0.6 mark in WAR, according to Baseball-Reference.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the campaign also culminated in fittingly futile fashion. During the National League Division Series, the left-hander developed an infected abscess on his … uh … backside. He was removed from the team’s playoff roster after rushing to the hospital for what manager Dave Roberts described at the time as an emergency excision procedure.
“Last year sucked,” Scott said. “That’s what I say every time someone asks.”
In other words, it was an all-around, pain-in-the-butt experience.
However, 2026 has gone markedly better for the former All-Star reliever. He has cut his ERA by more than half, owning a 2.28 mark entering Friday. He is unexpectedly leading the team in saves, going 18-for-20 in a ninth-inning role that was supposed to belong to new signing Edwin Díaz before he suffered his own string of injuries. In Roberts’ estimation, “he’s been our most consistent reliever, by far.”
And as a result, a very-online corner of the club’s fan base found a peculiar way to praise him.
Early on in Scott’s rebound season, some social media users began tagging him with the “BBL” nickname –– a Brazilian Butt Lift joke that played off his season-ending medical issue last fall, as well as the transformation he’d undergone since.
It was sophomoric humor, no doubt, a niche internet meme that largely went unnoticed outside of Dodgers-centric communities on Twitter.
But then, when Scott faced Seattle Mariners slugger Cal Raleigh last month, team broadcaster Stephen Nelson took the acronym mainstream, slipping it into his SportsNet LA commentary with a twist.
“It’s the Big Dumper,” Nelson said, in reference to Raleigh’s iconic nickname, “against BBL: Big Bad Lefty, Tanner Scott.”
Before long, the clip had caught the attention of Dodgers players. Those who weren’t attuned to the phrase’s original meaning –– including Phillips, one of Scott’s close, longtime friends in the sport –– quickly learned and latched onto the bit.
“There’s some backstory to the Twitter world, the meme world,” Phillips laughed this week. “It’s amazing.”
So much so, Phillips commissioned an order of T-shirts emblazoned with the BBL moniker, dozens of which have since been passed out around the clubhouse.
Phillips made sure to use the PC version of the nickname in the shirt’s design, with the letters spelling out “Big Bad Lefty” in a crossword-esque pattern. The accompanying photo, though, uncoincidentally shows Scott in the middle of his wind-up, with his leg lifted and posterior prominently featured.
“It’s fun,” he told the California Post with a sheepish grin this week.
Indeed, for as juvenile as the jokes may seem, the 10-year veteran has been a surprisingly good sport about it.
Scott laughed about the clubhouse shirts, saying he was a fan of them because “Evan’s my friend.” He noted that his wife, Maddie, has found another novelty tee online of “me with a giant tush.” This offseason, Scott even poked fun at himself on Instagram, captioning a photo of him holding the World Series thusly: “Put everything BEHIND me,” he wrote, alongside a peach emoji.
Not every player would embrace such attention so light-heartedly, of course, especially when the comedy is referencing something as dispiriting as his 2025 season.
Scott’s attitude, however, is exactly part of the reason he has been able to stage his sudden turnaround.
He didn’t let himself get hung up on last year’s failures. He was able to flush his frustrations and reframe his mindset. And now, with the help of some offseason mechanical tweaks that have eliminated last year’s habit of too often missing down the middle, he has rediscovered his “inner confidence” as one of the sport’s premier left-handed relievers, as Roberts noted this week.
“He’s very good at not letting the noise affect him,” Roberts said. “He doesn’t run from struggles.”
Entering the stretch run of this season, it has made Scott the most important arm in the Dodgers’ banged-up bullpen.
With Díaz back on the injured list, he has a chance to re-establish himself as the team’s primary closing option.
This week, Scott authored an auspicious return to the role in the wake of Díaz’s neck injury, recording a four-out save on Tuesday night in Colorado then a scoreless 10th-inning save to complete a series sweep over the Rockies a night later.
And, as Phillips unintentionally quipped while discussing Scott’s resurgent performance, it might be giving new meaning to the BBL nickname –– with Phillips highlighting the way his teammate has “bounced back” this season.
“Baseball is a game of really tiny adjustments and subjectivity and nuance and –– all these words that Tanner would never use,” Phillips joked. “But just his ability to show up each day and get after it and do what he does, that’s part of what makes him so good.”
