The Dodgers had their first bobblehead promotion for Roki Sasaki in early August 2025.
The promotion made sense when it was announced. One can never tell about the timing of these events when they are announced. Yes, Blake Snell had his first Dodgers bobblehead night while he was still on the injured list, which accordingly deflated the price on the secondary market.
Good news requires celebration, as it was easy to forget that the Dodgers won the Sasaki sweepstakes, much to the agita of most of the league. However, the team has made some truly boneheaded moves on and off the field in 2025 (including introducing variable pricing to tours, signing Michael Conforto, etc.)
At the beginning of the year, in my wildest nightmares, I would have envisioned that the Dodgers would seemingly drive Sasaki’s development into a ditch.
When I last left off coverage of Sasaki, after shenanigans involving burgers, Sasaki had an uneven debut in Japan, and a solid start in Texas was wiped out because Kirby Yates decided to pitch unscheduled batting practice to finish a game in Arlington.
Sasaki so far in the majors has thrown exactly two pitches over 100 mph, and they were thrown to the first batter of the first inning of his major league debut in Tokyo: Ian Happ. The first was fouled off. The second turned into his first major league out.
Sasaki made three more starts after Arlington, ranging from okay to literally terrible.
Sasaki was holding back with his fastball, which was to address durability and control issues based on what was publicly said by the Dodgers. While Sasaki always had elite speed with his fastball, the ongoing issue was the trajectory of the pitch, per Mark Prior to The Athletic in May:
Accordingly, hitters have hit six homers off Sasaki — all on the fastball. While hitters so far in 2025 have a .225/.351/.411 slash line against Sasaki, the batting average and slugging average against for the fastball are .253/.494. That swing is like going from 2025-Ryan McMahon (.225/.402) to 2025-James Wood (.260/.488). For reference, the league average is .246/.402.
Sasaki went down with right shoulder impingement in mid-May and started throwing bullpen sessions last month with a timetable of a late August return. So far, Sasaki has a 1-1 record with a 4.72 ERA. He has roughly an equal number of strikeouts (24) to walks (22) and a FIP of 6.16.
Here is what I thought the Dodgers would do after the team won the Sasaki sweepstakes. I figured the team would send Sasaki to Triple-A Oklahoma City for a couple of months to ease into the transition of playing baseball in the U.S. and polish his badly needed third pitch.
Did I expect some East Meets West promotional shenanigans, say a samurai cowboy or Godzilla-like promotions, while in Oklahoma City? A little. History’s timeline is weird; technically, there is overlap between samurai and Abraham Lincoln.
Before Nippon Professional Baseball social media comes at me, yes, Sasaki was a professional for four seasons. But by his own admission, he was an unfinished project. I figured the Dodgers might bring Sasaki to Japan on the taxi squad before easing him into the grinder that is MLB’s regular season.
Instead, the Dodgers chucked Sasaki into the deep end of the figurative pool. I was taught how to swim by being tossed by my uncle into the deep end of my grandfather’s pool. Granted, I nearly drowned a couple of times, which I still bring up at family get-togethers, but I do swim like a fish, though.
Sometimes trauma is not the best teacher.
While I was and remain enamored with Sasaki’s ceiling, I was very clear about the areas that Sasaki needed to improve upon arriving in MLB (including durability and the viability of a third pitch, his slider):
One can envision a Japanese Paul Skenes with a higher upside in the right light. But in the least flattering light, if you are having flashbacks to Dustin May with subtitles, you would not technically be wrong except for one aspect: Sasaki has yet to suffer an arm injury.
I suppose the shoulder is not the arm injury that I was worried about, but I cannot help but feel like I monkey’s paw’d myself.
Yes, the Monster of the Reiwa Era arrived, but instead of the classic monster we all know and love, his inaugural campaign has had more in common with the 1998 Roland Emmerich flop that entirely missed the point of the character. If your action movie has Matthew Broderick as a lead, you have made a terrible movie.
Also, when the copyright to the 1998 monster reverted to Toho Company, Ltd., the original Japanese creator, the company stripped God from the monster’s name. It renamed the creature Zilla, which they brought back to hilarious effect in 2006.
For the record, the designer of the 1998 version of Godzilla did not mind being mocked, as he was happy his creation was embraced, of sorts, in the Toho canon.
Am I saying that Sasaki is a bust?
Any final determination about Sasaki in MLB is wildly premature. The bloom is off, and anyone who was forecasting any award for Sasaki in 2025 looks silly now. But what is past is prologue; the question now is, where does Sasaki go from here?
When Yoshinobu Yamamoto came over last year, I argued he made a bad first impression, but he had a pedigree unmatched by anyone in MLB. However, when it mattered most, Yamamoto was the most reliable arm in the Dodgers’ rotation.
Sasaki never had that pedigree, only the physical tools and stuff that exceeded just about every pitcher I could think of, not named Paul Skenes, in my forty years of following baseball.
Dustin May is now gone, which makes using him as the benchmark for Sasaki a bit awkward. As an aside, May went on the record saying that the Dodgers pushed him out, which is a bit rich considering that I was arguing for the Dodgers to demote him last month.
When Sasaki returns, he and the Dodgers will have a second chance to make a first impression. I fear that Sasaki’s baseball comparison now is Bobby Miller, a once-cant-miss prospect who managed to get relegated to the bullpen in record time after getting a bobblehead after a promising rookie campaign.
While wonder is the cost of experience, I freely admit it when I am a fan of someone, especially one who wears their emotions on their sleeves.
Saying the worst-case scenario out loud does not make it true; in fact, sometimes you have to face things head-on to literally eat your words. I got a Sasaki bobblehead on the secondary market for $50, because sometimes I am a sucker for a gesture.
My hope is that Sasaki can build something this year. If unchanged, at worst, the Dodgers turned a moderately successful pro from Japan with amazing stuff into a Double-A, which is an indictment of everyone involved. At this point, Sasaki can only reasonably get better. I have to believe that the Dodgers’ pitching staff can figure this puzzle out. Sasaki threw a bullpen session this week, and the team is being flexible as to plans for the coming stretch drive.
What Sasaki does next is an open question. Sasaki pitched three innings in a simulated game last Friday at Dodger Stadium, and will start a rehab assignment Thursday night for Oklahoma City.
Not to be Yoda, but there is another that I have kept tabs on during the NPB season as a person of interest in the interim. Being photographed in Dodger gear will do that, but this sneak peek may take a couple of years, barring a lockout.
To conclude this recap of Sasaki, we shall shift gears to a time that seems so very long ago.
I would be remiss if I did not take the opportunity to highlight something right that the Dodgers did last month that escaped just about everyone’s notice in my circle.
Thirty years ago, the original maverick from Japan touched down in Los Angeles: Hideo Nomo.
The Dodgers released a documentary about Nomomania, which is well worth your time to watch, and includes everyone from Nomo to front office personnel to Mike Piazza.
Fernandomania was two years before I was born. Like Stephen Nelson, I was a 12-year-old boy poorly mimicking Nomo’s tornado windup in trying to throw Tom Candiotti’s knuckleball. While a generation of fans holds a special place in their heart for Clayton Kershaw as a once-in-a-lifetime talent, for me, that spot was filled by an awkward maverick who absolutely challenged and transformed my view of baseball.