The Los Angeles Dodgers have already announced that they are rolling with Roki Sasaki in their starting rotation as they open the 2026 season.
Despite his poor showing during Cactus League play, including Monday’s start against the Los Angeles Angels, the plan to continue developing him as a starter in the Majors has not changed.
Sasaki’s fledgling tenure with the Dodgers has been frustrating to observe from afar, for the simple reason that his talent is evident beneath the surface, and it is just a matter of coaxing it out of him.
The Dodgers believe that the best decision for the young right-hander’s development is for him to work through his issues in the Majors, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told to Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“There’s obviously a big gap between Triple-A and the big leagues,” Friedman said. “With certain really talented young players that we really believe in, we think that last mile of player development is generally better served at the major-league level.
“That said, even with our established guys it’s one of continued player development. Now for some guys, that’s more on the margins. For other guys there’s more involved. But we believe very strongly that he is going to be a very successful major-league starter. Just how quickly that comes to be is a fair question. Obviously we’re going to pour everything we can into making that happen sooner rather than later and we’ll go from there.”
While there have been bright spots during Cactus League games and on the backfields at Camelback Ranch, the overall body of work has left a lot to be desired.
Sasaki has shown on the biggest stage that he belongs, tossing 10.2 electric innings during the 2025 postseason. The problem is that he has yet to translate this ability to his role as a starting pitcher.
Even if this new season hasn’t started the way they had hoped, his postseason performance only reinforced their belief in his future as a starter:
“In our minds, Roki still possesses all of the skills necessary to be a very good major-league starting pitcher,” Friedman said.
Sasaki finished the Cactus League season with a 15.58 ERA and 2.77 WHIP, including a 28.8% walk rate, in 8.2 innings.
Roki Sasaki trying to make mechanical adjustments
Sasaki attributed his hardships in recent years to bad mechanics, and he has been working hard to correct them in camp this year. But it has been a struggle to translate the work he’s put in at practice to the games.
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