Roki Sasaki struggled in his second spring training start on Tuesday, in the latest sign that the something is wrong with the 24-year-old righty.
The Dodgers starter opened the game against the Guardians with a four-pitch walk to Steven Kwan, then allowed a single to center by Brayan Rocchio. He followed that by walking José Ramírez on four pitches. That left them loaded for Kyle Manzardo, who turned a 97 mph 2-2 fastball around, launching it 375 feet to left center. The ball left his bat at 104.6 mph.
Kyle Manzardo clears 'em all!#GuardsSpring pic.twitter.com/Pf6yY7VLZ5
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) March 3, 2026
Sasaki then walked David Fry before being pulled in favor of Christopher Crowell. He finished the inning getting no outs, with three walks, a single and a home run. Not great.
Due to a quirk allowed in spring training, Sasaki was allowed to re-enter the game to start the second inning. He struck out Rocchio, got Ramírez to fly out to left and struck out Manzardo. In the third, Sasaki induced a flyout from Fry, then George Valera grounded out and Nolan Jones popped out to second.
While that was a nice bounce back, the damage was done. He pitched in three innings, but only registered six outs, while allowing four earned runs on two hits and three walks, with two strikeouts.
Tuesday’s showing followed his first outing against the Diamondbacks from last week, when he went 1 1/3 innings and allowed three runs on three hits, while walking two and striking out three. Overall, his spring has been pretty awful. He’s sporting an 18.90 ERA and a 3.00 WHIP. He has five strikeouts and has allowed five walks.
There is no doubting Sasaki’s pure stuff. His fastball sits in the upper-90s and touches triple-digits, and his forkball can be downright unhittable. But unless he can actually locate that fastball consistently, he’ll put too many guys on base to be effective.
We saw similar issues for Sasaki in 2025. He pitched 10 regular-season games and went 1-1 with a 4.46 ERA, a 1.43 WHIP and his FIP was 5.80. Sasaki’s strikeout rate was an underwhelming 17.4, and his walk rate was a monstrous 13.7. None of that is good news for a guy who was hyped as the best pitching prospect in a generation outside of Paul Skenes.
Perhaps most alarmingly, his overall Stuff+ came in at a below-average 91. League average is 100. His fastball was at 79, and his slider was rated at 90. His forkball, listed as a splitter, did come in at 111.
Roki Sasaki’s playoff performance
Sasaki sat out much of the 2025 campaign due to a shoulder injury. When he returned, he worked out of the bullpen during the L.A.’s run to a World Series title. He was solid in that role. In nine postseason appearances, he posted a 0.84 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP, but he did walk five against six strikeouts in 10 2/3 innings.
That playoff performance gave the Dodgers hope that the long layoff had helped him iron out some of his issues, though consistent control was still a problem.
It’s early in spring and early in Sasaki’s career. There is plenty of time to turn things around, but his struggles with control appear to be real and not a one-season mirage.
Sasaki has not had the relatively smooth transition to MLB play we saw from teammates Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Roki Sasaki’s Disastrous Start to Spring Training Is Pretty Concerning.
