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Why is struggling Roki Sasaki starting season in Dodgers’ rotation?

March 19, 2026

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Teams like the Dodgers say it every spring – before they break camp, they have to find the best 13 pitchers to fill out their staff when the season begins.

With Roki Sasaki’s spring ERA topping 13.00 – it’s over 8.00 even if you include the four innings he pitched in a minor-league game against hitters ticketed for Double-A – Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked this week if Sasaki was one of the team’s 13 best.

“He is going to start the season in the rotation,” Roberts said, avoiding the question and answering it at the same time.

Settling on a 13-man pitching staff is not that simple, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said.

“You don’t just order them one through 13 and then, oh, he’s No. 14,” Friedman said. “Most of the time, 13 through, say, 18 are very close. There are a lot of factors that go into making those roster decisions.”

Kyle Hurt and River Ryan are prime examples of that this spring.

The two young right-handers were two of the Dodgers’ more effective pitchers during Cactus League play. Hurt struck out 12 of the 30 batters he faced while allowing six hits and walking two. Ryan gave up two runs on five hits in 9⅔ innings while striking out 12.

But both were sent to the minor leagues this week and neither will open the season on the Dodgers’ 13-man pitching staff. Both are recovering from Tommy John surgery – Hurt had his in July 2024 and briefly pitched in Triple-A late last season, Ryan had his surgery a month later in 2024 and made his return to action this spring.

The Dodgers want the two to build up slowly in their comeback season and will put a governor on their workload this year, something more difficult to do in the heat of a major-league season.

Hurt and Ryan will pitch for the Dodgers at some point this season. But it’s Sasaki who will be on the Opening Day roster.

“Roki is an extremely talented young starting pitcher and there is still development left – as there is with a lot of talented young players,” Friedman said. “For us, as we are trying to balance our roster looking into 2026 and beyond and we are trying to integrate talented young players onto our roster, we’re going to have to approach it with some patience and be really mindful of short-term and long-term goals. We’re going to have the same challenges with young position players and young pitchers. For us to maintain success as far as we can look out, it is imperative.”

But is it imperative that Sasaki complete his development at the major-league level?

There are conspiracy theories about promises made to Sasaki during his courtship two winters ago and questions about how the 24-year-old would mentally handle a demotion. But Friedman says developing Sasaki at the major-league level is what the organization believes is best for his future.

“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.”

Sasaki’s greatest success in his rookie season came after a move to the bullpen in September. With a high-90s fastball (restored after getting healthy and stronger last summer) and a splitter that can be devastating at times, Sasaki profiles more as a reliever at this point in his development. He is trying to add a two-seam fastball and a hybrid cutter-slider, seeking to become more than a two-pitch pitcher.

Friedman points out that “when you look around the league, most relievers are failed starters for the most part.” The implication is it is far too soon to hang that label on Sasaki, who made just eight starts for the Dodgers last year before going on the injured list for most of the season.

“In our minds, Roki still possesses all of the skills necessary to be a very good major-league starting pitcher,” Friedman said.

Despite his spring struggles, Sasaki has not carried himself like a young player fighting for a roster spot. At various times after his Cactus League starts, he cited a disconnect between his upper and lower body in his mechanics, too many sinkers causing him to drop his arm slot, imminent cramping in both calves and poor pitch sequencing for the struggles that forced Roberts to pull him in mid-inning three times in three starts.

“I have a lot of things I need to work on,” Sasaki said through an interpreter earlier this week. “But it’s just spring training, so just keep continuing to work on that. The results in spring training don’t really matter.”

They don’t if you have a spot in the starting rotation set aside for you.

“He’s going to be one of our starters,” Roberts reiterated this week. “I think I’ve been very consistent in the sense of, we don’t solely evaluate spring training in its entirety alone. So with that, he’s obviously got things to prove – consistency of getting guys out, consistency of strike throwing. But he’s going to get that opportunity to start the season and we’ll see where we go from there.”

Orange County Register

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Why is struggling Roki Sasaki starting season in Dodgers’ rotation?

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