Roki Sasaki: The newest addition to Hollywood’s superteam

It felt like just last year we were seeing this same headline related to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Oh wait, we were seeing the same exact headline last year. As a matter of fact, I wrote an article after Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed his massive 12 year contract with the Dodgers titled, “Yoshinobu Yamamoto: The newest addition to Hollywood’s superteam.” Sure, I need to work on more creative headlines, but what else am I supposed to do when we get the same story every year? My initial takeaway, or question rather: was it the Dodgers all along for Sasaki? It seemed like he expressed a desire to be out of the spotlight and focus more on choosing a destination that would be best for his development as a big league pitcher. Despite Los Angeles being one of the biggest markets in baseball, with the long list of stars on the Dodgers, Sasaki doesn’t have to be the center of attention at all times. The Dodgers pitching development was probably what ultimately sold Sasaki. The Dodgers have been among the best in developing big league arms and there isn’t another team out there that can provide the type of championship culture they have right now.

So what exactly are the Dodgers getting from Roki Sasaki? The right handed phenom just turned 23, but has four professional seasons under his belt already. He spent all four of his seasons in the Nippon Professional Baseball League with the Chibba Lotte Marines. In that time frame, he threw a total of 414.2 innings to the tune of a 2.02 ERA, a 0.88 WHIP, a 32.4 K%, and a 26.7 K-BB%. While Yoshinobu Yamamoto was unequivocally the best pitcher in Japan at the time, there was no doubt that Sasaki was next up. You might remember Sasaki from the 2023 World Baseball Classic where he was a vital piece to Japan’s pitching staff en route to a championship. It was there that the baseball world was made aware of his elite arsenal. He features an electric fastball that has touched 102 mph and averages 97-98 mph, along with a very good splitter and slider. The splitter is actually his premier pitch and what makes him so good. His splitter would have ranked as one of the top pitches in Major League Baseball in 2024 according to the pitch metrics. It tunnels very well with his fastball, fading in to right handed hitters, and down and away to left handed hitters. The slider isn’t nearly as dominant although the numbers on it are still very good, producing a lot of chases and whiffs. This is a well-rounded arsenal that will only get better when the Dodgers and Sasaki likely play around with additional fastball shapes (sinker, cutter).

Aside from the numbers, why was Sasaki such a hot commodity for teams? The money was a huge factor. You might be wondering why he didn’t get the same type of massive deal that Yamamoto got last year. Because of the rules between MLB and the NPB, Sasaki was subject to international bonus pool money. For players under the age of 25 that have not yet become unrestricted free agents (which happens after 9 seasons in the NPB), teams can only offer money from their international bonus pool. The pool this year for teams was between $5.1M and $7.5M. The Dodgers were on the low end but received some extra money from the Phillies in a trade to help lock down Sasaki for $6.5M. From here on out, Sasaki will be under team control, going through the normal pre-arb/arbitration process all MLB players go through until they hit free agency after six years of service time. Sasaki will never cost the Dodgers the same amount of money as Yamamoto (unless they were to extend him), and Sasaki may have more upside than him. With the type of arm talent Sasaki possesses, it’s hard to project many pitchers his age having a better career than him.

The Dodgers have a pretty fun problem on their hands now in deciding who their opening day starter will be. With the addition of Sasaki, they have five different pitchers that could be opening day starters on any given team. I already gave them my #1 spot in my starting rotation rankings before they locked up their five-man rotation by adding Sasaki. It’s more than likely they deploy a six-man rotation, adding either Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May, or Bobby Miller to the mix to take some innings off of these arms to ensure health, which has definitely not been a given for the Dodgers in years past. Sasaki’s career high in innings to this point is 129.1 back in 2022, and I’m not sure I see L.A. letting him eclipse the 150 mark.