The Los Angeles Dodgers will try to defend their World Collection title in 2025 after defeating the New York Yankees to win the championship final season.
Whereas the Dodgers’ roster was already among the best within the league, they added much more expertise this offseason.
The Dodgers acquired three notable pitchers: starter Blake Snell from the San Francisco Giants, reliever Tanner Scott from the San Diego Padres, and starter Roki Sasaki, who’s coming over to MLB from Japan.
MLB insider Dylan Hernandez not too long ago in contrast Sasaki to different high Japanese pitchers.
“When it comes to simply the uncooked supplies, I do suppose he has extra perhaps than another Japanese pitcher earlier than him,” Hernandez mentioned, by way of Foul Territory.
Will Roki Sasaki be the best Japanese pitcher ever?@dylanohernandez discusses the flame-throwing right-hander becoming a member of the @Dodgers in 2025. pic.twitter.com/LsqgNiOnwq
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) January 21, 2025
The opposite Japanese pitchers that Hernandez discusses are Yu Darvish of the Padres and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers.
Sasaki will be a part of Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a Dodgers rotation that’s loaded with expertise.
In 2024, Sasaki appeared in 18 video games and was 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA and 129 strikeouts in 111.0 innings pitched.
Hernandez mentioned he believes Sasaki has the stuff to be among the best pitchers to ever come from Japan, however his sturdiness shall be an enormous query mark.
It will likely be fascinating to see how the Dodgers use Sasaki as he has by no means thrown greater than 130 innings in a season.
NEXT: Analyst Makes Big Statement About Dodgers’ Pitching Staff