The Los Angeles Dodgers recently activated Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell from the injured list, and Roki Sasaki is the next member of the starting rotation nearing a return.
Sasaki began his rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City last week, and he has another outing in the coming days. The right-hander struggled in his first rehab start, but that’s to be expected after missing so much time without pitching.
While the rookie is nearing a return to the Major League roster, the Dodgers are still not certain as to what his role will ultimately be.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that the team will continue to bring Sasaki along as a starter, but a move to the bullpen is not out of the question, depending on how other areas of the roster shake out.
“Anything is possible, but right now with Roki, it’s build him up as a starter,” Roberts said. “You look at the rotation right now, we don’t have much more depth. So if something does happen, you’ve got to be able to backfill.
“Obviously, we put (Justin) Wrobleski in the ‘pen, and he’s been a little more shortened up recently, so you’ve got to have somebody to backfill the length.”
The Dodgers now boast a rotation of Clayton Kershaw, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Emmet Sheehan, Snell and Glasnow. There isn’t much depth behind them given that Justin Wrobleski has been moved to a bullpen role.
Still, injuries to pitchers like Michael Kopech, Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott have added a layer of uncertainty to the bullpen equation, with the Dodgers expecting them to return toward the end of August or into September.
That leaves little room for error if anyone suffers a setback or struggles to regain effectiveness.
Sasaki has expressed a willingness to take on any role the Dodgers ask of him.
Prior to landing on the injured list, Sasaki went 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA and 1.49 WHIP across eight appearances as a starter.
Roki Sasaki developing two-seam fastball
The lack of effectiveness of Sasaki’s four-seam fastball was a major problem and contributed to his struggles out the gate this season. Batters hit Sasaki’s fastball hard, with a .253 batting average and .494 slugging percentage against it while only whiffing 10.1% of the time.
Sasaki utilized his time rehabbing to develop a two-seam fastball as a way to combat the success hitters have had against his four-seam. The hope is a two-seamer will help Sasaki miss barrels and induce more ground balls by mixing it in with his four-seam fastball.
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