The Los Angeles Dodgers kept Roki Sasaki in their rotation Monday even as the club’s new high-priced closer was headed for elbow surgery Wednesday in Los Angeles after an MRI. Emmet Sheehan, along with the rest of the Dodgers’ pitching plans, now sits inside a broader bet on what Sasaki can become rather than what he has already been in 2026.
Sasaki has made only 12 career big-league starts, but the Dodgers are continuing to treat the 24-year-old like a pitching prospect, not a finished product. That approach matters now because the Dodgers opened the season 16-7 and are trying to hold their rotation together while one arm after another is being managed carefully. Each April start by Sasaki is being framed more as a look beyond this season than a push toward an immediate All-Star turn.
Brandon Gomes has already said publicly how high the organization is willing to think when it talks about Sasaki. During his introductory press conference with the Dodgers, Gomes compared him to Paul Skenes and said, “If he continues to develop, it’s Cy Young contender. I mean, I’ve seen the Paul Skenes comp. I think it’s definitely Cy Young caliber.” He also said, “To have done what he was able to do in Japan at this age and there’s room to get better, it’s really exciting and impressive.”
That optimism is part of why the Dodgers are not rushing to move Sasaki out of the rotation. The club will keep starting him until it no longer believes he is a viable long-term option there. The logic is simple: he averages 97 mph on his fastball, and the raw stuff still gives the Dodgers a ceiling worth chasing even if the present results are uneven.
They have been uneven. Opposing hitters are batting.400 with a.686 slugging percentage against Sasaki’s fastball, a reminder that velocity alone has not yet made the pitch dominant. And while the Dodgers have treated him like one of their pitching prospects, the evaluation has not always been flattering. He had a final season in Japan that was not viewed as dominant, his stuff got a boost in a short burst last fall, and by October, from the NLDS on, some of the shine had started to fade.
That leaves the Dodgers in a familiar place: balancing patience with urgency, and projection with present need. Sasaki may be the most talented of their pitching prospects and still carry the highest ceiling, but the club is also staring at the practical question of how much of that ceiling can be turned into dependable starts right away. For now, the answer is that they are willing to keep watching, even as the rotation absorbs another injury hit and the season keeps moving.
