PHOENIX — The Los Angeles Dodgers are still not quite sure what they have in Roki Sasaki. So, the next chapter in the much-hyped phenom’s rookie season will feature the 23-year-old trying something different: when the Japanese right-hander is activated off the injured list on Wednesday, it will be as a reliever.

“He’s going to be in the ‘pen, don’t know what role,” manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday. “I think he’s embraced it.”

Sasaki hasn’t had much choice but to embrace what the Dodgers are trying to get out of him. The Dodgers already had more than enough postseason starting pitching options when Sasaki started his rehab assignment last month. When Sasaki’s fastball still sat in the mid-90s and still struggled to get swings and misses like it did before he went on the shelf with a shoulder impingement, it looked as if his chances to contribute at all in 2025 were all but dashed.

Instead, Sasaki was receptive to changes.

Rob Hill, the organization’s director of pitching, visited Sasaki on his assignment and suggested tweaks to Sasaki’s delivery, particularly how he uses his lower half. In his next start, he sat around triple digits with his fastball. The jump was enough to thrust him back onto the Dodgers’ radar. A bullpen that has been prone to implosions — their 5.23 ERA ranks 25th in the majors — created a potential lane for Sasaki.

So he shifted to Triple-A Oklahoma City’s bullpen last week. In his first outing, he again touched 100 mph and worked around a base hit for a scoreless inning. He followed that up with a perfect inning Sunday. His fastball is starting to get swings and misses. His unicorn splitter is in the strike zone enough to get batters to swing at it. His new cutter, which replaced his slider, looks effective enough as a third pitch in short bursts.

It’s still not a lock that Sasaki will be on the postseason roster when the Dodgers open the National League Wild Card Series a week from Tuesday. But the Dodgers will spend this week seeing how it looks.

Sasaki had never come out of the bullpen in his time in Japan with the Chiba Lotte Marines. His first time having any sort out outing coming out of the bullpen was this spring training. All eight of his big league outings (in which he posted a 4.72 ERA) were starts.

“The most important thing is he’s open to it and willing to do whatever it takes to potentially be on our post-season roster,” Roberts said. “It speaks to his character and being a great teammate. That’s something for me that’s most important. And then, now give himself an opportunity on the field. Then, I think once you get into some type of cadence, it’s still pitching, it’s still baseball. I feel he can do it, but it’s up to him to go out there and perform.”

Sasaki’s talent makes him an interesting postseason option. That he’s an option at all only speaks to the desperation the Dodgers have right now in their bullpen. Their most trusted right-handed reliever, Blake Treinen, is in the midst of a brutal stretch. Edgardo Henriquez has just 20 1/3 big league innings under his belt. Ben Casparius struggled enough against right-handers that he was sent to the minors. Kirby Yates has pitched his way out of leverage spots.

The Dodgers’ lone bullpen acquisition at the trade deadline, Brock Stewart, was acquired to tackle facing right-handed hitters. He’s appeared in just four games for the Dodgers since the trade. Roberts said Tuesday it’s not a guarantee that Stewart gets activated off the injured list this week after missing more than a month with shoulder trouble.

“Just kind of workload, kind of making sure he feels good,” Roberts said. “Just some conversations with Brock, making sure he’s put in a position to feel good if he is activated.”

Stewart threw a flat ground session at Chase Field on Tuesday under the watchful eye of a trainer and general manager Brandon Gomes.

“We’ve got to kind of see where we’re at, look at the totality of the ‘pen and how it factors into all that,” Gomes said. “So we’ll take it day by day with Brock.”

(Photo: Harry How / Getty Images)