Dodgers Won’t Place Restrictions on Roki Sasaki in First Year, Says Insider
The Los Angeles Dodgers have won the offseason for so many reasons.
From the Cy Young award winners on the 2025 roster, the core pieces from the franchise’s eighth championship run brought back, to the countless reinforcements made from the team’s elite front office, one signing can potentially prove to be the greatest: Roki Sasaki.
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When president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman talks about how a young player can be the best pitcher in the world one day, it is worth considering his assessment.
In a race that originally started with 20 MLB teams, narrowed down to eight in-person meetings, to then the final meetings with three teams, Sasaki saw no better team to partner with to achieve his lofty goals than the Dodgers.
As it is still hard to fathom, Sasaki is so young and has already achieved so much. Luckily, he will not just continue to dominate, but ESPN insider Alden Gonzalez spoke on how the Dodgers will handle his development this year.
“We’ve been hearing so much about him for years, and he is finally in the major leagues, getting set to face the best hitters in the world,” Gonzalez wrote. “Though they’ll monitor him closely, the Los Angeles Dodgers won’t place any restrictions on Sasaki in his first season in the U.S.
“I want to see how one of the most lauded pitching development programs goes about extracting the greatness Sasaki clearly possesses. And I want to see how major league hitters react to his absurd splitter.”
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Sasaki could easily have been the crown jewel of the rotation for many other ball clubs, but it may play to his advantage that he is not. With two World Baseball Classic teammates in Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto among other giants of the pitching roster, the 23-year-old will learn plenty in his first season in L.A., on his quest to become the greatest ever.
“He has talked about his desire to be the best pitcher in the world,” Friedman said, “and we believe he’s capable of being the best pitcher in the world.”
Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
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