Dodgers GM sends clear message on Roki Sasaki’s role

The Los Angeles Dodgers had plenty of pitching injuries to deal with this season, but after one of the most exciting acquisitions of the offseason missed close to five months with a shoulder injury, the eventual champions later used it to their advantage.

After 23-year-old Roki Sasaki posted a 2.10 ERA across four seasons of Nippon Professional Baseball, 20 MLB teams expressed their interest when he was posted for MLB free agency ahead of the 2025 campaign. During the first eight starts of his MLB career, he struggled with command, tossing 22 walks against 24 strikeouts to go along with his 4.72 ERA.

After a shoulder impingement sidelined him for most of the regular season, his command and velocity showed no improvement during his rehab assignment. In a somewhat miraculous development, Sasaki tweaked his delivery after watching high school highlights of himself and increased his velocity by over four mph.

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Sasaki made a pair of scoreless relief appearances in the regular season and became among the most trusted bullpen pieces through the postseason. He totaled a 0.84 ERA through 10.2 innings of work, earned the first two saves of his career on the road against the 96-win Philadelphia Phillies on back-to-back nights in the NLDS (and a third in the NLCS), and brought immense relief to a bullpen that floundered all season long.

Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes recently spoke on Sasaki’s bullpen brilliance, and if that means he will remain as a reliever in 2026, or get back to the starting rotation.

Despite his microscopic ERA in the postseason, Gomes said that Sasaki will “absolutely” go back to the starting rotation.

When Sasaki was healthy, the Dodgers’ rotation seemed to have not only gotten healthier but also established a new level of dominance ahead of October. Sasaki was able to not only address a bullpen need, but also show that he is still the pitcher that the MLB world fell in love with last offseason.

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