So much has been made of Roki Sasaki’s spring-training struggles, but Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts put the lid on any potential controversy spilling into the regular season.
Roberts emphatically declared Sasaki would be in the Dodgers’ regular-season rotation with about two weeks until LA will open its season March 26 against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Sasaki has struggled by allowing seven earned runs in 3 1/3 spring-training innings (18.90 ERA) in two starts. That is the continuation of a trend where Sasaki struggled in the first inning in games in 2025.
Sasaki was dominant pitching from the bullpen in 2025, particularly in the postseason where he ended up with an ERA of 0.84 and three saves in nine appearances.
Dave Roberts: Roki Sasaki Will be in the Dodgers’ Rotation
Roberts skipped Sasaki from making a major-league spring-training start this week, opting instead for him to work out some of his mechanical issues while pitching against Chicago White Sox prospects on an alternate field at Talking Stick in Scottsdale.
The Dodgers are counting on Sasaki as their No. 4/5 starter, behind Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto — plus Blake Snell when he returns from injury. Snell, and 2024 11-game winner Gavin Stone, are both likely to start the year on the injured list, which makes Sasaki even more important.
“I just don’t see a world where he doesn’t break with us as a starter,” Roberts told Sonja Chen of MLB.com. “We’re going to need those innings.”
The Dodgers signed Sasaki from Japan, dipping into their international-signing-pool money to land the now-24-year-old, to be a starting pitcher. He has a dominant two-pitch arsenal, which played well out of the bullpen after he returned from a shoulder injury in August.
But the Dodgers overhauled their bullpen by adding Edwin Diaz as their closer this offseason and are set to have Tanner Scott, Blake Treinen, Ben Casparius and others set up for Diaz. Plus, the Dodgers employ a six-man rotation, mainly since Ohtani and Yamamoto require an extra day of rest.
Roki Sasaki Dominated White Sox Prospects
Roberts was asked about what he was expecting from Sasaki in his outing before he went out to face the mostly Double-A hitters.
“Just trying to get outs, compete and use his entire pitch mix to get through four innings,” Roberts said. “We talked earlier about establishing the fastball, getting the fastball command, early in camp, and now we’re trying to get to four innings to kind of get that build up.
“You’re going to have to get outs.”
Sasaki told Chen after the game he had felt “pretty bad” about how he pitched in the days leading up to his outing and blamed his struggles on mechanics.
“I think it’s all about mechanics,” Sasaki said. “If my mechanics are really good, I think my command is good, too.”
But he came through, allowing one hit and striking out nine in those four innings while throwing 59 pitches and 40 strikes. It was enough to inspire Roberts, even though he wasn’t on site to watch it first hand and had to get a synopsis from his assistant coaches.
“They said it was electric. They said [his velocity] was 98 to 100 [mph],” Roberts said. “The fastball sprayed a little early, but then he locked it in. The split was on the plate, short, a lot of swing-and-miss. Couldn’t have asked for a better day.”
Dodgers’ Dave Roberts Makes Clear Decision on Roki Sasaki Ahead of Opening Day