Dodgers hoping for signs of progress in Roki Sasaki’s second spring

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Dodgers have insisted since he signed with them that Roki Sasaki is a work in progress. It was hard to see the progress part in his spring debut on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old Sasaki faced nine hitters, gave up three hits (including two doubles) and walked two against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was pulled from the game with one out in his second inning after throwing 36 pitches, just 17 strikes.

For established players, spring games are practice sessions with admission prices and the scoreboard turned on. That makes fertile ground for overreaction if you try to make too much of results. But in Sasaki’s case, the Dodgers would like to see some signs that the adjustments he made last year, leading to his success out of the bullpen in the postseason, have taken hold.

“I think as we kind of keep looking out and he gets more outings – absolutely,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged after Wednesday’s game, attributing Sasaki’s rough outing to “overthrowing.”

“He’s just got to mix better. He’s got to command the fastball. Like I said, I just attribute it to first game adrenaline. But, yeah, you want to see progress from everyone – especially someone like Roki who’s trying to build off last year.”

Roberts has already said this spring that he expects Sasaki to be in the starting rotation when the season begins. But his second MLB spring is also an important time for the young right-hander to show some progress in his development.

“It is, but I think that Roki has still – there’s a lot of growth potential with Roki as a young player, and so it’s important because we’re expecting him to be good, he’s expecting to be good and to continue to get better,” Roberts said. “But, yeah, I mean, it’s a big one. But they should all be big in a certain way.

“Roki is still developing, and like I said, he’s not going to be fully developed by the season’s start, and that’s to be expected.”

With Will Ireton in Japan for the World Baseball Classic, Sasaki’s substitute translator struggled with the media’s questions following Sasaki’s outing. He did relay that Sasaki said he “felt pretty good in the bullpen, but it wasn’t good on the mound.”

Sasaki wore the PitchCom device and called his own pitches against the Diamondbacks. He tried to establish his fastball early, throwing it for seven of his first 10 pitches. He switched to the new cutter he has been trying to add to his mix, throwing it seven times in the next 13 pitches. Only three of his last 14 pitches were fastballs.

“I called my pitches by myself because I wanted to try something,” he said through his interpreter. “I wanted to try my own pitches that I wanted to make.”

Roberts said he was “as surprised as anyone” when Sasaki came out throwing so many fastballs.

“Honestly, today was the first day I thought he came out of his mechanics. I just thought he was overthrowing,” Roberts said, adding that he hadn’t seen that during Sasaki’s bullpen sessions or live batting practice this spring.

“The main thing is he’s got to pitch off of his split. He can strike it, shorten it. Then mix in the fastball, commanded. And then work on that third pitch we’re talking about. But today I think he got into some bad counts. He just didn’t have feel or command of that fastball. That first inning I don’t think he used his split at all. So, yeah, I’m just going to chalk this one up to his first outing. Then as we build up to two, three innings I think we’ll see a better outing.”

BROTHERS RYAN

For the first time since the end of Ryder Ryan’s senior year at North Mecklenburg High School in Huntersville, North Carolina, Ryder and his younger brother, River, are teammates again.

“It’s awesome,” said River, about three years younger than Ryder. “It’s going to be fun being in the same major-league dugout. That’s really cool.”

Ryder, now 30 years old, made his major-league debut with the Seattle Mariners in 2023 and made 15 appearances for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2024 before spending 2025 in Triple-A. After a winter spent at Tread Athletics in North Carolina, he signed with the Dodgers and received a non-roster invite to spring training where he is trying to make the Dodgers’ stacked bullpen. He has already thrown two scoreless innings in Cactus League games.

River, 27, made his big-league debut in 2024, posting a 1.33 ERA in four starts before undergoing Tommy John surgery. He could fill an opening in the season-opening rotation if the Dodgers’ front-line starts aren’t ready to go. He saw his first game action since August 2024 on Wednesday, walking one in a hitless inning.

“Hopefully our schedules line up so we can throw in the same game,” River said. “That would be really cool.”

TEAM RUBIO

The players on Team Puerto Rico have a tradition of dying their hair blond for the World Baseball Classic. Edwin Diaz was sporting a silvery blond this week – deemed “really cool” (in Japanese by Shohei Ohtani).

After his spring debut for the Dodgers on Wednesday, Diaz was asked if he did the color change himself.

“No, I got somebody to do it,” he said. “If I did it to myself, I’d maybe go bald.”