Roki Sasaki selected proper when he signed with the Dodgers.
By no means thoughts not being prepared to steer the rotation of one other workforce and problem Shohei Ohtani. The 23-year-old Sasaki doesn’t look able to pitch within the main leagues.
Sasaki made his second begin for the Dodgers on Saturday night time, and it was by some means worse than his first. He didn’t make it out of the second inning of a 7-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Dodger Stadium, his management issues much more pronounced than they had been in his debut in Tokyo.
He recorded solely 5 outs. He walked 4. He was charged with three hits and two runs. Of the 61 pitches he threw, solely 32 had been strikes.
This disheartening begin to his main league profession — he walked 5 batters in three innings in his earlier begin towards the Chicago Cubs — shouldn’t sound any alarm bells, however that’s solely as a result of he’s taking part in for the Dodgers.
If Sasaki wants one other begin or two to get acclimated to the pitch clock or low-quality American baseballs, the Dodgers can afford to offer them to him.
If he must spend time refining his supply within the minor leagues, the Dodgers have the mandatory depth to cowl his absence.
Sasaki gained’t have a rookie season like Fernando Valenzuela’s or Dwight Gooden’s, however the Dodgers don’t want him to. The Dodgers are World Sequence favorites with or with out him, and so they have the luxurious of treating him as if he’s a prospect with out compromising their championship ambitions.
Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers throughout his Dodger Stadium debut on Saturday night time.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Occasions)
His circumstances can be utterly totally different if he’d signed with one other workforce. On the San Diego Padres, he in all probability would have began the season because the No. 3 starter. Him pitching like this may have erased no matter probability the Padres had of dethroning the Dodgers within the Nationwide League West. The strain to carry out can be better by a number of orders of magnitude.
Nonetheless, there’s a draw back to not being wanted, as Sasaki is with the Dodgers, which is {that a} participant could be forgotten. Round this time final 12 months, Bobby Miller was seen as a star within the making. Miller didn’t have the season the Dodgers envisioned, as his efficiency declined and his well being failed him. He began this season with the franchise’s triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma Metropolis.
