The MLB world will have to wait a little longer to see a fully healthy Roki Sasaki return to the mound.
On Tuesday, the Dodgers announced they’ve placed Sasaki on the 15-day injured list with a shoulder impingement.
“Physically, he was a little bit sore afterwards, and that’s something that we’re still kind of trying to figure out,” Manager Dave Roberts said hours before the official announcement. “You know, what’s normal, what’s kind of not normal. … We want to make sure that he’s in a good spot, physically and mentally.”
Sasaki has struggled to maintain his high-level velocity, with the injury a potential correlation with the struggles.
“I think it’s a combo,” Roberts said. “I think that there is a command component. I think there is a trying to go out there and compete every fifth or sixth day or sixth or seventh day to get Major League hitters out.”
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“We’re still trying to have conversations to see where he’s at. Because at the end of the day, we want to make sure he is performing up to his capabilities and up to our capabilities and our expectations. So there’s kind of a lot of things that we’re trying to suss out right now.”
Sasaki is 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA in eight starts for the Dodgers, but has struggled to dominate hitters like he did in Japan.
The Dodgers also have Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell on the injured list due to injury.
