The Los Angeles Dodgers placed rookie pitcher Roki Sasaki on the injured list with right shoulder impingement Tuesday prior to their loss to the Oakland Athletics. Sasaki's early entrance to the United States at just 23 years old from NPB always came with some injury risk, in part due to the wear and tear already on his arm and the increased innings likely to come with the Dodgers. Per a comment from Dodgers manager Dave Robert, Sasaki could've been placed on the IL even earlier.
“We became aware of this after his last start in Arizona,” Roberts said. “From what we gather, he’s felt some discomfort for the last few weeks, but given where we’re at as a pitching staff, he wanted to continue to go and persevere and fight through everything until his performance was going to be compromised. So that’s when he let us know where he was at physically.”
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Dave Roberts and Dodgers asked Roki Sasaki to pitch through injury
Yes, the Dodgers struggled with pitching depth the last few weeks, as they always have. But is that really worth asking one of the top prospects in all of baseball to increase their injury risk early in their MLB career? I would think not, and it brings into question why Roberts and the Dodgers front office were willing to take such a risk in the first place.
“We made it very clear to Roki that there is no expectation on timeline,” Roberts said. “The main thing is that he’s healthy, he’s strong, his delivery feels good, then he’ll pitch for us.”
Roki Sasaki's rookie season is off to a rocky start
By asking Sasaki to pitch while dealing with a minor injury, Los Angeles may have unknowingly increased the amount of time he'll have to miss with his right shoulder injury. Sasaki's velocity is down 3-4 MPH early in his rookie season, and he is just 1-1 with an ERA over 4.00. Even Roberts knows something is off, and he hopes rest and recovery do the trick.
“Obviously knowing what we know now, there was certainly some compensation from him, and his delivery was probably compromised,” Roberts said. “And all that is because he wanted to compete and help us out.”
Durability is a question mark for Sasaki moving forward. In Japan, he never made more than 20 starts and threw nearly 130 innings max. With the Dodgers, he'll be asked to do much more. Is he up for the challenge? The jury is still out.