Roki Sasaki's Year-One Rollercoaster

Roki Sasaki signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers as one of the best and most highly talked about free agent prospects in the 2025 free agency. His highly anticipated debut was filled with ups and downs, allowing only one run, but command issues forced him out of the game after only three innings. 

He had a 4.72 ERA through his first 8 starts. Then, on May 13th, 2025, everything took a turn for the worse. Roki was placed on the 15-day IL and was expected only to miss a little over two weeks, but his injury lasted much longer than the Dodgers thought. 

After over 4 months on the IL, Roki was reactivated to pitch with the playoffs not far away; however, as a starting pitcher, there wasn’t much room for him in the playoffs. He took on the closing role, a spot in the bullpen where the Dodgers had struggled all season, but he had never been a closer before, and no one knew what to expect. 

Everyone had their debates about whether he would be the same as earlier in the season, or would he play like the player every team wanted to sign. No one could have guessed how much of a key player Roki was for the Dodgers in the Championship run. 

Roki had 3 saves and an ERA of 0.84 in 7 appearances, proving how valuable he was to the Dodgers winning back-to-back World Series.