If Roki Sasaki comes off the injured list and helps the Los Angeles Dodgers in the postseason, Dave Roberts knows who deserves the credit.
Roberts spoke about Sasaki’s rehabilitation and how Dodgers director of pitching Rob Hill has helped the right-hander unlock his swing-and-miss stuff while working his way back from injury.
Saski has made just eight starts and has not pitched in the majors since May 9 while dealing with a right shoulder impingement. He is 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA and just 24 strikeouts and 22 walks in 34 1/3 innings this year.
How Is Rob Hill Helping Roki Sasaki?
Sasaki, like Yoshinobu Yamamoto before him, was a much-ballyhooed prospect coming from Japan that the Dodgers won over and signed — though to a much-less-lucrative one-year, $7.5 million contract than Yamamoto’s 12-year, $325 million deal.
Sasaki had struck out 505 in just 394 2/3 innings in the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan, yet the 23-year-old struggled mightily to adjust to Major League Baseball. His four-seam fastball got the second-lowest whiff rate of any pitch a Dodgers pitcher has thrown — only Clayton Kershaw’s fastball whiff rate was worse — and according to FanGraphs, hitters slugged almost .700 at that pitch when it was up while he was pitching.
So those are the types of adjustments Hill worked with Sasaki on.
âI think a lot of young, talented players just out-talent leagues and they donât really need to make any type of adjustments,” Roberts said. “It happens with Americans, it happens with pitchers, with position players with a lot of young players. I just think it was something where he needed some suggestions for guidance and Rob was there and it worked out well.â
In his last rehab outing before rejoining the Dodgers — he has not yet been activated but could during their homestand — Sasaki got 15 swings and misses on his 90 pitches thrown in 4 2/3 innings. He averaged about 98 mph on his fastball on topped 100 mph on his fastball.
“Roki has kind of been on his own trying to get his feels and things like that,” Roberts said. But he and Rob had a really good session and tapped into some velocity.”
What Is Roki Sasaki’s Role With The Dodgers?
The Dodgers starting staff is at full strength, and they already are maxed out with six Grade A starters — Yamamoto, Kershaw, Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Emmett Sheehan.
So Roberts reported that Sasaki is open to coming out of the bullpen, especially in the playoffs where LA’s six-man rotation will shrink to four at the most.
âI think that Roki is in a good place to do whatever it is to help the team,â Roberts said. â[Pitching out of relief] would be something that would be completely odd to him, so it would have to be a little bit of a leap of faith on his part as well.”
According to Roberts, Sasaki just wants to help the Dodgers chase their second straight World Series championship.
âBut I think that he understands how good the starting pitchers are pitching. He just wants to be a part of it. Heâs worked really hard to get himself into a position to contribute.â
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