Why Dodgers Can’t Send Roki Sasaki to Triple-A Yet

May 2, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (11) delivers a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals in the first inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Puetz-Imagn Images

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki has been widely discussed since arriving in the United States, and the conversation about whether he is a starter continues.

Sasaki has put up a 5.97 ERA over six starts, pitching 28.2 innings this season. His ERA during his rookie year was 4.46 with eight starts and two relief outings.

He started 2025 as a starter, missed months with a shoulder injury, and then came back as a reliever for the final stretch before the Dodgers gave him another chance to start heading into 2026.

There is a roster crunch coming soon with Blake Snell getting healthy once again, leaving one of Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan, or Justin Wrobleski on the chopping block.

May 2, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (11) delivers a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals in the first inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Puetz-Imagn Images

On the surface, it looks like he is pitching worse than he did in 2025, but there have been notable developments under the hood.

Roki Sasaki’s development

There are exciting things happening with Sasaki. First of all, he is throwing at a more consistent velocity this year, with a steady 97 mph average on his fastball. In 2025, he was all over the map, with wild pitch-by-pitch fastball velocity variations.

His fastball shape is still not great; it gets a good deal of quality contact when thrown in the zone, making Sasaki timid about throwing fastballs for strikes, but his mechanics seem to be more in-flow.

He is throwing two different versions of his splitter: one around 90 mph with less dip that can be thrown for strikes, which is more of a typical splitter, and his forkball, which drops to around 84 mph with crazy movement.

Additionally, he has his “third pitch,” a slider with some cutter characteristics, which will essentially be his fourth offering now, with the two splitter looks.

Last year, he mainly had a two-pitch offering, raising questions about his viability as a starter. However, the new pitch he debuted, his “gyro-slider,” has been effective when used, and his new splitter grip has worked a charm, getting him into more positive counts.

He has only made one start with both variations being deployed vs. the St. Louis Cardinals, but it was quite the positive outing on the whole.

Undoubtedly, Sasaki needs more time to fully grasp his arsenal, which is raising questions about whether it is best to see him work things out in Triple-A before coming back up.

However, there are a few reasons why that does not make sense.

Why Sasaki should stay in the big leagues

Sasaki, during his last appearance against minor-league competition in Spring Training, struggled with his confidence. He seemed to falter from outing to outing as he realized he was facing lower-level talent.

By the time he made his regular-season debut, he had revealed that he had “no confidence. Sasaki had put up an 8.62 ERA with 15.2 innings pitched and 15 earned runs over the spring, with 18 walks during that span.

Getting demoted, especially as he has started to emerge and make adjustments, could drastically drop his confidence, and if he struggles more against lower-level competition as he figures things out, it could have a really negative effect.

Also, there is no better way for him to figure things out against the top level of competition.

With the progress that he has made and the talent advantage that the Dodgers have, they can afford to keep him on the team and next to their top pitching expert, Mark Prior.

As for the state of the roster, Sheehan has been more erratic in terms of his mechanics than Sasaki even, an d he could benefit from time on the injured list or in the minor leagues to work on his issues.