Roki Sasaki's Long-Term Role for Dodgers Discussed by Andrew Friedman Amid Early-Season Struggles

After playing a crucial role out of the bullpen during the Los Angeles Dodgers' run to the World Series last year, Roki Sasaki has not carried that over so far in 2026 as he returned to the starting rotation.

Speaking to The Athletic's Katie Woo about Sasaki's future role with the Dodgers, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman stated the team "definitely" sees him as a starter:

"We definitely see him as a long-term starting pitcher," Friedman said. "We are very firm believers that he has the ability and the upside to be an elite starting pitcher in this game."

Sasaki had an immense amount of hype around him when he signed with the Dodgers as an international free agent in January 2025. He was being compared to Paul Skenes and Stephen Strasburg among top-tier pitching prospects over the past 15 years going into his rookie season.

MLB.com ranked Sasaki as its No. 1 prospect entering 2025. He posted a 2.10 ERA with 505 strikeouts over 394.2 innings in 64 appearances for Chiba Lotte in NPB from 2021 to '24.

One of the few concerns in Sasaki's scouting report as he was coming to MLB was his dip in velocity on the fastball in 2024. He also struggled with his fastball command throughout his first spring training.

Even though neither of those factors changed his outlook in the moment, they have caused problems now that we have a sample size of Sasaki against MLB hitters.

The command and control, in particular, has been disastrous for Sasaki. He has allowed 69 hits and 38 walks in 70.0 innings over the past two seasons. His ERA went from 4.46 in 10 appearances last year to 5.88 in seven starts thus far in 2026.

Of the 132 pitchers this season who have thrown at least 30 innings, Sasaki ranks 128th in fWAR.

Sasaki's success last postseason, with a 0.84 ERA in 10.2 innings, does suggest he can be a good MLB pitcher. But even that comes with some caveats because he still had nearly as many walks (five) as strikeouts (six).

The Dodgers have not really taken any pressure off Sasaki by having him continue to pitch at the MLB level rather than letting him work through his struggles in the minors, but they don't seem to have lost faith that he can become a reliable contributor for them in the future based on Friedman's comment.