{"id":123498,"date":"2025-08-06T11:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T11:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/123498\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T11:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T11:48:12","slug":"things-are-finally-turning-around-for-dodgers-roki-sasaki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/123498\/","title":{"rendered":"Things are finally turning around for Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Between now and October, the Dodgers<\/a> will be evaluating their increasingly healthy pitching staff, trying to identify the best 13 arms for their World Series push.<\/p>\n

And for now, they remain hopeful that rookie right-hander Roki Sasaki<\/a> could be part of that mix; writing an unexpected end to what once seemed like a lost 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n

After being one of the biggest stories of the Dodgers\u2019 offseason this winter, Sasaki has become more of an afterthought in the eight months since.<\/p>\n

Back in January, the Dodgers\u2019 acquisition of the Japanese phenom<\/a> felt like a coup. The 23-year-old right-hander was billed as a future star in the making. He came advertised with a 100-mph fastball, devastating splitter and seemingly limitless potential as an ace-caliber pitcher. Most of all, he was a bargain addition financially, requiring only a $6.5-million signing bonus (for six years of team control) after making a rare early career jump from Japan.<\/p>\n

The reality, to this point, has been nowhere near the expectation.<\/p>\n

At the start of the season, Sasaki made eight underwhelming starts \u2014 with wild command and declining fastball velocity contributing to a 4.72 ERA \u2014 before being sidelined by a shoulder impingement.<\/p>\n

Since then, he has sat on the injured list and largely faded into the background. An important piece of the Dodgers\u2019 long-term plans, sure. But a wild card, at best, to contribute to their World Series defense this fall.<\/p>\n

Lately, however, the narrative has started to shift again.<\/p>\n

Over the last month, Sasaki has finally started progressing in a throwing program, twice facing hitters in recent live batting practice sessions. He has another three-inning simulated game scheduled for Friday, after which he could go out on a minor-league rehab assignment.<\/p>\n

And after his early-season struggles to locate pitches or reach triple-digit velocities, the Dodgers have been encouraged with the changes he has made to his delivery and pitch mix. In a bullpen session Tuesday, Sasaki hit 96 mph with his four-seam fastball while also showcasing a two-seamer he has added during his time injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m expecting to see pounding of the strike zone, conviction behind the throws, and just a better performer,\u201d manager Dave Roberts said of Sasaki, who could rejoin the active roster near the end of August.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, I just think that Roki has got to believe that his stuff plays here, which we all believe it does.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s title chances, of course, don\u2019t exactly hinge on Sasaki. If their current rotation stays healthy, they should have more than enough starting pitching depth to navigate another deep October run.<\/p>\n

But getting Sasaki back would provide some welcome pitching insurance.<\/p>\n

He could also be a candidate to eventually shift to the bullpen, with Roberts leaving open the possibility of using him as a hard-throwing reliever come the end of the season (even though they intend to stretch him out to six innings as starter for now).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gonna take the 13 best pitchers [into the playoffs],\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIf Roki is a part of that in some capacity, then that would be great. And if he\u2019s not, then he won\u2019t be.\u201d<\/p>\n

For much of the summer, it seemed like a long shot the Dodgers would be having such conversations about Sasaki at this point.<\/p>\n

For all the hype that accompanied his arrival, the results made him look like more a long-term project.<\/p>\n

In his eight early-season starts, his fastball averaged only 96 mph, and was punished by opposing hitters for its flat, relatively easy-to-hit shape. His slider was a work-in-progress, leaving him without a reliable third pitch.<\/p>\n

His go-to splitter did induce the occasional awkward swing from opponents, and garnered much praise from teammates. But Sasaki failed to consistently use it to generate chase out of the strike zone.<\/p>\n

As a result, he pitched from behind in the count too often (evidenced by his 24-to-22 strikeout-to-walk ratio). He seemingly lacked confidence to attack opposing hitters over the plate (and gave up six home runs in just 34 \u2153 innings when he did). And once he went down with his shoulder injury (which was similar to one that had bothered him during his Japanese career), the early stages of his rehab did not go smoothly, with Sasaki requiring a pain-relieving injection in June almost two months after initially going on the IL.<\/p>\n

Since then, though, Sasaki has finally turned a corner.<\/p>\n

He told reporters Tuesday that he now has \u201cno pain\u201d and is feeling \u201cbetter about being able to throw harder\u201d upon his return.<\/p>\n

He has used his recent ramp-up as an opportunity to reset his mechanics, and clean up an arm path that Dodgers personnel believed was affected by his shoulder problems at the start of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we saw early on is probably not indicative of what everybody expects and has seen from him in the past when he\u2019s been 100%,\u201d pitching coach Mark Prior said.<\/p>\n

While out injured, Sasaki has also had an opportunity to sit back and watch big-league games up close, something Roberts and Prior insisted would be beneficial for a young pitcher who came to the majors with only 394 career innings over four seasons in Japan\u2019s Nippon Professional Baseball league.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s down there in that [dugout] stairwell when we\u2019re at home pretty much all nine innings,\u201d Prior said. \u201cYou can\u2019t not learn by just watching and at least having some experience \u2026 I think he understands now the importance of, \u2018I\u2019ve got to be ahead. I\u2019ve got to attack the strike zone.\u2019 He doesn\u2019t necessarily need it to be executed precisely, but it\u2019s got to be in the strike zone. You can\u2019t be living behind in counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

There may be no bigger sign of growth than Sasaki\u2019s embrace of the two-seam fastball.<\/p>\n

Before he got hurt, it was a pitch that people within the organization thought could help keep hitters off his diminished four-seam heater. Prior said that, before Sasaki was shut down, the coaching staff had initiated a conversation about adding it to his repotoire.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, everybody would love a fast, high-riding four-seam,\u201d Prior said. \u201cBut even that being said, these [hitters] have gotten a lot better and know how to attack those things. So just giving them different looks and stuff to lean into and keeping the righties honest, just gives him some flexibilities and some options.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hope is that it will help Sasaki be more competitive when he returns, and complement the rest of his highly-touted arsenal.<\/p>\n

That, when coupled with improved health and refined mechanics, will trigger a late-season resurgence capable of making him an option for the postseason roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy every intention is to get back on the major league mound and pitch again,\u201d Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton. \u201cWith that being said, I do need to fight for the opportunity too. I don\u2019t think that I\u2019ll just be given the opportunity right away.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Between now and October, the Dodgers will be evaluating their increasingly healthy pitching staff, trying to identify the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":123499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2442,37574,76221,170,1266,9105,7484,21700,26804,11638,60661,5950,62,22799,76223,76224,76222,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-123498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-dodgers","9":"tag-fastball","10":"tag-hitter","11":"tag-japan","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-month","14":"tag-opportunity","15":"tag-pitch","16":"tag-roberts","17":"tag-roki-sasaki","18":"tag-sasaki","19":"tag-season","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-start","22":"tag-strike-zone","23":"tag-team-control","24":"tag-unexpected-end","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114981667478085723","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}