Minor League Baseball

Roki Sasaki, Baseball's No. 1 Prospect, Nearly Hits 100 MPH in Spring Training Debut

Sasaki, who signed a minor-league deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers this offseason, lived up to the billing on Tuesday against the Cincinnati Reds.
Brady Farkas|
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki against the Cincinnati Reds during a spring training game at Camelback Ranch-Glendale on March 4.
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki against the Cincinnati Reds during a spring training game at Camelback Ranch-Glendale on March 4. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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Los Angeles Dodgers

Making his spring training debut on Tuesday night, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki lived up to the billing. Pitching against the Cincinnati Reds, Sasaki pitched three innings in relief, giving up no runs on two hits. He walked one and struck out five.

Flashing his upper-end velocity, Sasaki topped out at 99.3 MPH and featured a devastating splitter. He is currently ranked as the No. 1 prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline.

According to @PitchingNinja, Sasaki generated swings-and-misses on 87 % of the splitters that were swung at.

Outside of Juan Soto, Sasaki was the most coveted free agent in baseball this winter. Not only does he have excellent stuff, but because he came over from Japan before the age of 25, he was subjected to only international signing bonus money, meaning he was affordable for every team.

The Dodgers got him and appear to be even stronger than the team that won the World Series a year ago. Though Sasaki signed a minor-league deal, he will be in the starting rotation alongside Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Tony Gonsolin. Eventually Clayton Kershaw and Shohei Ohtani will join the group as well.

The Dodgers open up the season on March 18-19 with the much-anticipated Tokyo Series against the Chicago Cubs. Sasaki should pitch in that series, though it's unknown exactly when and how he'll be deployed.

We do know that Yamamoto will take the ball in Game 1, while Shota Imanaga will pitch for the Cubs. That marks a historic starting matchup of two Japanese pitchers getting the starts in their home country.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is the senior writer for “Minor League Baseball on SI’’ and the host of “The Payoff Pitch’’ podcast, which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. Follow Brady on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.

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