Roki Sasaki's return to the mound should have Dodgers fans in a full-on panic

The Los Angeles Dodgers are in full-on crisis mode right now, having fallen all the way out of first place in the NL West ahead of this weekend's crucial showdown with the rival San Diego Padres. The pitching staff, and the bullpen in particular, have been decimated by injuries, and the offense has struggled to pick up the slack. At this point, L.A. needs all the help it can get if it wants to retain its grip on the division and get things back on track ahead of October.

Part of that help figured to be the return of Roki Sasaki. The young righty has been out since early May with a shoulder issue, one that the team hoped had been contributing to the ugly start to his rookie season. But after more than three months on the shelf, Sasaki is finally making his return to the mound ... and the results look about as bad as they did before he landed on the IL.

Sasaki's first rehab start went about as poorly as possible: He allowed three runs on six hits over just two innings of work, and while Minor League statistics don't really matter much, it's alarming that the velocity on his fastball was down around 93-94. The fact that he struggled to generate swings and misses against Triple-A hitters wouldn't seem to bode well for his return to a Major League mound.

Again, he hasn't pitched competitively in months. It's normal to need some time to knock the rust off, and his stuff figures to get better as he builds his strength back up. Sasaki reported after the game that he felt fully healthy, and that's the most important thing.

But now that we've gotten those disclaimers out of the way ... it would be much easier to disregard such a rocky outing if it didn't look exactly like what Sasaki was doing before he got hurt. At a certain point, we all need to admit that this project is a much longer-term one that we expected, and the Dodgers need to start worrying less about whether Sasaki can help this season and more about whether (or when) he'll pan out as a big-league starter.

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Dodgers fans need to start asking tough questions about Roki Sasaki

These are questions that predate his arrival in the States. A reportedly crucial part of Sasaki's recruitment visits with various teams was how they might help Sasaki regain some of the fastball velocity that disappeared during his final year pitching in Japan. Once sitting in the high 90s and occasionally breaking triple-digits, Sasaki's heater had slowly diminished over time; not only was he not seeing the velocity he was used to, but the flat shape of the pitch made it much more hittable than you'd expect.

Sasaki apparently thought that the Dodgers would have the answers he sought, and it's not hard to see why considering the pitching development machine Andrew Friedman and Co. have established. But several months in, we've yet to see any gains in that department; if anything, the problem only seems to have gotten worse. His fastball was all too hittable earlier this season at the MLB level, and as a result he was nibbling too much, getting behind in counts and unable to get to his wipeout splitter as a put-away pitch.

Again, Sasaki is still young (he won't turn 24 until November). It's far too early to declare him a bust, or to give up on a pitcher who has this much raw talent. At this point, though, it's clear that whatever's wrong with him isn't going to fix itself on the timeline the Dodgers need. It's more likely that he'll need a full offseason, at least, to retool. Given his extremely team-friendly contract, he has plenty of runway. But L.A. is in need of pitching reinforcements right now, and unless Sasaki turns this around quickly, the team might be in trouble.