After Roki Sasaki stole the spotlight in the second half of the MLB offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers officially announced we will see the young phenom in spring training action for the first time on Tuesday, March 4. The game will be available on SportsNet LA, MLB.TV, and MLB Network at Camelback Ranch at 5:05 p.m. MT (7:05 p.m. ET/4:05 p.m. PT).
Interestingly, Sasaki will not start the contest but instead follow fellow Japanese hurler Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who is expected to cap out around 4.0 innings pitched. For Sasaki, that should be pretty prime competition if any of Cincinnati's regular starters come out by that point in the game, and will help the phenom get comfortable quickly on the mound.
We know Sasaki can go the distance, as he once threw a 194-pitch complete game in high school. Pitch counts that high will likely not be seen in MLB, but once he works up, there's doubt he'll be able to get deep into ball games.
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How stretched out will Roki Sasaki be for Opening Day in Japan?
We know Sasaki threw about a 30-pitch bullpen session less than a week ago, so if he can tack on another 10-15 per outing, there's reason to believe he can get pretty deep by the time he starts game two for Japan on March 19. If effective, there's no reason he shouldn't be stretched out enough for at least around five innings.
Of course, we will have to wait and see how deep Sasaki can get by his second Spring outing, which is tentatively scheduled for March 11th, before heading to Japan for Opening Day, where he figures to be the game two starter after Yamamoto before him takes game one. If all goes well, he will likely get into at least the 50's before traveling overseas. The Dodgers, of course, aren't going to push Sasaki to go further than he should in his first outing at the major league level, but we will get a taste of what he can bring to the table against MLB hitters at just 23 years old.
After four seasons in Japan, Sasaki recorded an illustrious 2.10 ERA over just shy of 400 career innings. As the season progresses, the big story on Sasaki won't be from a "stuff" standpoint but how many innings he'll be able to eat this coming season, as his career high in Japan was 129.1. His MLB debut is one of the most anticipated in recent times.