The Los Angeles Dodgers placed Roki Sasaki on the 15-day injured list in the middle of May due to a right shoulder impingement that he had been pitching through.
The 23-year-old did not reveal the shoulder trouble until after his most recent start against the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 9. The outing was his first time pitching on five days of rest instead of six.
Sasaki has largely struggled to begin his MLB career due to a combination of velocity and command issues. His average fastball velocity is significantly down from his time in Japan, and he has nearly as many walks (22) as strikeouts (24) through five starts.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believes Sasaki’s shoulder injury is at least partially to blame for his struggles thus far, but the right-hander felt he couldn’t definitively state as much.
“It’s hard to tell if it’s the main reason why my velo and command was affected. It’s hard to tell if that’s the main factor,” Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton.
In any case, Sasaki is hopeful that his time on the IL will allow him to correct some of the issues that have been plaguing him.
“I do feel like this is a good time to be able to do that, so I want to make sure that I’m fully healthy and be able to address anything that I had so that it leads to better performance,” he said.
Sasaki experienced the same shoulder injury during his final season with the Chiba Lotte Marines last year, but isn’t sure what caused it to flare up again.
“There’s nothing per se that I could say is for certain, but it is a really good time for me to make sure that I can get to the bottom of it,” he said.
Sasaki went 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA and 1.49 WHIP in eight starts before going on the IL. There is no timeline for his return, largely due to the Dodgers not wanting to put pressure on the young pitcher.
Dave Roberts hopes Roki Sasaki will regroup
Roberts is also confident that Sasaki will benefit from the downtime and make some mechanical adjustments.
“I think so,” Roberts began.
“Obviously, we didn’t know what to expect this year, but to think he was going to go wire to wire, given his track record and history of innings, was probably unrealistic. So this could be that little bit of reprieve in the middle of the season. Then we can get him back to feeling healthy, strong, 100%, and help us get through the World Series.”
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