Roki Sasaki returned from the injured list on September 22 and has looked like the most dangerous weapon in the Dodgers bullpen. Three appearances, 3 innings, zero runs, 6 strikeouts, zero walks. The numbers alone are impressive — but what makes the story genuinely interesting is that this time Sasaki was the one who asked to move to the bullpen, before the Dodgers even had to bring it up. That’s a different guy than the one they had to talk into it in 2025.
Same setup as last year, different mindset
Last year’s script went like this: Sasaki got hurt, the Dodgers convinced him to pitch in relief, and the 24-year-old Japanese right-hander ended up closing in the postseason — posting a 0.84 ERA across 10.2 innings and nine appearances. This season the structure repeats — a right middle finger injury on August 26, a return as a reliever — but with one key difference. According to reports from Yahoo Sports and Dodgers Way, Sasaki told manager Dave Roberts he wanted the bullpen role to get ready for October. In 2025, the Dodgers had to promise him a rotation spot in 2026 to get him on board. This time, he came in with no conditions attached.
The structural reality left little room for debate anyway. Los Angeles’s postseason rotation already has four names — Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tarik Skubal and Tyler Glasnow — with no opening for a fifth starter. The question was never whether Sasaki would relieve; it was whether he’d be happy about it. Turns out, he already was.
100 mph out of the pen — and a concrete reason why
On September 25, in his second outing since returning — against the San Francisco Giants — Sasaki averaged 100 mph on his fastball, 2.2 mph above his season average, according to Baseball Savant. He needed just 14 pitches to get through the inning without allowing hard contact. His splitter was up 1.7 mph, his slider up 0.4 mph. None of that is a coincidence: it’s the classic effect of a starter moving to relief, where shorter, max-effort outings push velocity across every pitch.
Combined across his three outings since returning: 3.0 IP, 2 hits, 0 runs, 6 strikeouts, 0 walks. As a reliever in his MLB career, his ERA sits at 0.66 over 13-plus innings, and the Dodgers are 12-0 in every game he’s appeared in. Small sample, sure — but not random noise.
The timing matters too. Los Angeles’s bullpen has had visible cracks down the stretch: Tanner Scott leads the team with 23 saves but has blown four, two of them in September. Edwin Díaz made two trips to the IL. Sasaki arriving as a high-leverage option — not necessarily a closer, since Roberts has said he’ll use matchups — fills a real gap at exactly the right moment.
What this means heading into October
The Dodgers finished the regular season with 100 wins. Sasaki closed that run with three nearly spotless innings that served as a live audition for the playoffs.
His 2026 starting numbers tell a tale of two pitchers: 4.49 ERA in 23 starts overall, but a 3.05 ERA in seven starts after the All-Star break. His Statcast profile is similarly split — 93rd percentile in fastball velocity, 81st percentile in whiff rate, but just the 12th percentile in barrels allowed. When hitters square him up, they square him up hard. In short relief stints, that problem shrinks considerably: fewer total pitches means the fastball arrives livelier, the splitter drops sharper, and hitters have less time to sit on his stuff.
The relief version of Sasaki that showed up in September 2026 is, in terms of pure velocity and movement, better than the starting version from August. Whether Roberts deploys him in the seventh, eighth or ninth — or as an emergency option if the rotation needs cover — is still to be determined. What’s already settled is that Sasaki arrives at this October in a completely different headspace than last year: he chose this role. He wasn’t talked into it.
Sasaki’s 2026 numbers at a glance
- 23 starts, 122.1 IP
- ERA: 4.49 | WHIP: 1.32 | xERA: 4.3
- 123 strikeouts, 48 walks (23.6% K rate)
- Fastball avg: 97.9 mph / 2,283 rpm
- Whiff rate: 29.7%
- Exit velocity allowed: 89.6 mph
- Barrel rate allowed: 9.8%
- Opponents batting average: .242
- Percentiles: fastball velocity 93rd ⬆️ | whiff rate 81st ⬆️ | barrels avoided 12th ⬇️ | hard hit avoided 15th ⬇️
