Dodgers' Roki Sasaki Named Biggest Disappointment of Season By AL Executive

Nestled among the many public statements coming from Dodgers executives after the team signed Roki Sasaki in January, it wasn't hard to find words of caution.

Although Sasaki, 23, was the most hotly contested free agent signing of the offseason, anyone who scouted him in Japan knew that tapping into his potential was a long-term project.

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"We're looking forward to him continuing to grow," general manager Brandon Gomes said in spring training. "What's impressive about him is, as good as he's been, there's so much room to even get better, which is scary."

"As he continues to refine the breaking ball, I think you're looking at one of the best pitchers in baseball," Gomes said in the next breath.

Sasaki, who makes his seventh start of the season Saturday in Atlanta, didn't use the breaking ball as often as he perhaps should have until his April 19 start against the Texas Rangers, his fifth start of the season.

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Sasaki's fastball, meanwhile, has averaged 96-97 mph since his adrenaline-filled debut in Tokyo. It's been a more hittable pitch (.319 expected batting average, .632 expected slugging) than even the biggest pessimists projected.

The results have been uneven. Sasaki has a respectable 3.55 ERA while allowing just 18 hits and striking out 20 across his first 25.1 innings. He's also walked 18 batters, and is still looking for his first major league win.

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This week, an anonymous American League executive told MLB.com that Sasaki has been the "biggest disappointment" of the 2025 season.

“He was seemingly being lauded as the next [Paul] Skenes, and that has not been the case so far," the executive told Mark Feinsand. "The walks have been surprising.”

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Perhaps the executive missed the words of caution coming from Gomes and others along the way.

Skenes, 22, is the reigning National League Rookie of the Year. Sasaki might still claim the award this year. Unlike Skenes, he did not have the advantage of years to acclimate to the nature of travel, and baseball, and food, and other customs in the United States before his rookie season.

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These aren't excuses — they're the same factors Yoshinobu Yamamoto faced last year as a 25-year-old rookie. He missed a couple months with a shoulder injury, made 18 starts, and went 7-2 with a 3.00 ERA in his first regular season outside Japan. So far in 2025, Yamamoto is 4-2 with a 0.90 ERA. Friday, he was named NL Pitcher of the Month for April.

Yamamoto needed time to adjust to the MLB lifestyle. Sasaki will too, and the Dodgers believe he'll get there.

"Anytime you have somebody as athletic, and explosive as he is, generally the ability to make adjustments and pick up things quickly — those things come at a quicker pace," Gomes said in January.

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