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Troubling sign emerges for Roki Sasaki in rehab start

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports
By Darryn Albert | Last updated Aug 16, 2025 10:00 AM ET

Roki Sasaki has not pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers since early May, and he still may not be all that close to getting right.

The Dodgers right-hander Sasaki made a rehab start on Thursday night for the Triple-A Oklahoma City Comets. Pitching against the Albuquerque Isotopes at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City, Okla., Sasaki threw 41 pitches and gave up three earned runs on six hits with zero strikeouts. He ultimately recorded just six outs as the Comets went on to lose 8-5.

Baseball statisician Thomas Nestico shared a detailed graphic on X about Sasaki’s rehab start. The graphic showed a very concerning sign for Sasaki — he relied heavily on his four-seam fastball (throwing it on 27 of his 41 pitches) but generated exactly zero swings-and-misses on it.

Roki Sasaki can't even generate whiffs on his fastball in AAA pic.twitter.com/9bexZQjT8w
— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) August 15, 2025

Sasaki, who has been out for over three months now due to a right shoulder impingement, did at least provide some reason for encouragement though. By the same graphic, he averaged 93.6 mph on his four-seamer and managed to generate a handful of whiffs with his splitter (Sasaki’s second-most-used pitch).

But it appears that Sasaki, 23, has plenty of work to do before he is even remotely ready for the big-league roster again. When Sasaki was healthy for the Dodgers this season, he also appeared to be in over his head, posting a 4.72 ERA over eight total starts and even seemingly crying after one bad outing. While prolonged injury rust might have had something to do with it this week, Triple-A batters are giving Sasaki some problems right now as well.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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