Dodgers’ Dave Roberts Provides Update on Roki Sasaki originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shared discouraging news about starting pitcher Roki Sasaki and his recovery from a shoulder injury on Sunday. According to the Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett, Sasaki has paused his throwing program, and there is no timeline for his return to the mound.
“He’s just not feeling that he can kind of ramp it up, so I gather that we’re trying to hold the baseball a little bit until he feels like we can get going again,” Roberts told reporters. “I think it’s with the medical staff, with Roki’s comfort, all that, and not feeling like we’re going to push him to do something he doesn’t feel good about.”
Roberts went as far as to say that the club could be without Sasaki’s services for the remainder of the 2025 season.
“Being thrust here into this environment, certainly, was a big undertaking for him. Now, you layer in the health part of it, and then, you layer he’s a starting pitcher, the buildup – you know what that entails. That’s the prudent way to go about it: whatever we get from him and expecting him to be back, obviously, and contributing,” Roberts said. “But I think the other mindset should be, ‘We got to plan on life without him as far as this year.’ I think that’s a fair way to think about it.”
Sasaki has been sidelined with “right shoulder impingement” since April 16, the day the Dodgers placed him on the 15-day injured list. The 23-year-old right-hander boasts a 1-1 record, 4.72 ERA, 1.49 WHIP and 24 strikeouts in 34.1 innings pitched across eight starts.
Sasaki joined the Dodgers organization this offseason from the Chiba Lotte Marines, a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) club in Japan with whom he has spent the past four seasons. While with the Marines, he was a two-time NPB All-Star and pitched a 19-strikeout perfect game against the Orix Buffaloes on April 10, 2022.
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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 15, 2025, where it first appeared.