Fans chanted his name. Teammates toasted his name. His manager deified his name, claiming he had just unleashed one of the greatest bullpen performances in baseball history.
Everybody loved him. Nobody doubted him. And in the middle of the Dodgers' postseason run last October, nobody was more valuable than him.
Remember Roki Sasaki?
It’s tough, but try.
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Remember his first October appearance last fall, finishing the clinching game of the wild-card series against the Cincinnati Reds, one hitless inning, two strikeouts, everything disappearing at 100 mph out of this skinny kid’s right arm?
That was the beginning of the chants, arguably louder than for any other player in Dodger Stadium history, stronger than Moo-kie, deeper than Fred-die, chants thundering enough to seemingly be heard for a lifetime.
“Ro-ki, Ro-ki, Ro-ki!”
Remember what happened next? He finished off the first two wins of the division series against the Philadelphia Phillies amid a taunting mob in Citizens Bank Park, becoming the first pitcher in history to record his first two career saves in the playoffs.
Then, back home, he created what was, at the time, the highlight of the season.
With a depleted pitching staff needing him, with the Dodgers' teetering hopes balanced on him, Sasaki came through with three perfect innings to essentially win the clinching Game 4.
Remember this? He started his work in the eighth inning by blowing past Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm. He finished his work after the 10th by being hugged by jubilant manager Dave Roberts while still on the field.
The Dodgers won it in the 11th on that incredible throwing error by Phillies’ reliever Orion Kerkering and the rest is shiny blue history.
The Dodgers couldn’t have won the World Series without Sasaki and, judging from their reaction after that clincher against the Phillies, they thought they had found their closer of the future
“One of the great all-time appearances out of the pen,” said Roberts.
Fellow Dodger pitcher Tyler Glasnow went even farther, saying, “Since … coming in from the bullpen, he’s honestly one of the best pitchers I’ve ever seen.”
The highest compliment, though, was paid by teammate Miguel Rojas, who raised a post-game clubhouse toast in his honor.
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“Shot for Roki!” he shouted.
Fast-forward to Sunday afternoon, Dodger Stadium, where the starting pitcher looks lost.
He can’t find the strike zone. He can’t find his fastball. He can’t find himself.
He gives up five hits and five walks in four innings. He requires the use of four relievers. He is eventually saddled with an 0-2 record with a 6.23 ERA after piling up a 4.46 ERA in eight starts last season.
The fans faintly begin chanting his name, then their voices disappear into a hush. Nobody is coming to hug him. Nobody is coming to call him the greatest pitcher ever.
He’s no longer the benefactor of a toast, because he is toast.
Remember Roki Sasaki?
Not like this, you don’t.
The former star reliever has become their most embattled starter and one who has made the season’s first big move seem inevitable.
They’ve got to put him back in the bullpen, no?
They’ve got to put him back to where he found his greatest success, where his lack of a variety of pitches will not hurt him, where he can throw 100 mph for 20 pitches and save the team with his strength.
As last October showed everyone, the bullpen is where he belongs. The rotation, featuring budding star Justin Wrobleski, will survive without him. The bullpen needs him more.
Don’t believe the Dodgers’ public shrugs about the recent dead-arm condition of Edwin Díaz. Something was wrong. Maybe nothing serious, nothing long-term, but something was wrong.
You don’t bring in the highest-paid closer in history and then not use him in consecutive save situations unless something was wrong. You don’t have him throw a bullpen for Dodgers officials unless something was wrong.
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That “something” may have already been fixed, as Díaz was available to pitch Wednesday after being sidelined for four days, but still. He could need help, and that is exactly what Sasaki offers and exactly what should happen.
C’mon Dodgers, send him across the field and into the left-field corner where he belongs.
Bullpen him, now.
“My goal is, kind of, go deeper in the game a little more,” he told the media Sunday through his interpreter Kensuke Okubo.
No, no, no. He doesn’t possess enough pitches to go deeper in games. He possesses just enough pitches — a fastball and a splitter — to last two innings, tops.
Look at this startling statistic:
In his first two innings of work, in three starts, he’s allowed zero earned runs.
In his other seven innings of work, he’s allowed nine earned runs.
Enough said. He’s a two-pitch pitcher who needs to be moved from the rotation into relief, and don’t think it hasn’t been done here before.
Eric Gagné made 48 starts from 1999 until 2001. At that point, the Dodgers decided he didn’t have the arsenal or attitude to be a starter, so they moved him to the bullpen.
He made 354 relief appearances without ever starting again, using his strength and skill and, yes, perhaps steroids, to convert a record 84-straight save chances while winning a Cy Young and coining the phrase “Game Over.”
Gagné was like Sasaki long before Sasaki. Even his entrance song, “Welcome to the Jungle,” matches Sasaki’s “Bailalo Rocky” with its ominous tones.
This is all so obvious, it’s a miracle the Dodgers haven’t put him in the bullpen already. But this is just the Dodgers being the Dodgers, an organization that puts the players first.
Sasaki wants to be a starter. When they convinced him to go to the bullpen last October, the Dodgers promised him he would return to the rotation.
“We were just honest with him, that as things stood, the only real pathway … was in the bullpen,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters at the time. “But we wanted his full buy-in.”
Sasaki, who had mostly started while growing up in Japan, told the Japanese magazine Shukan Bunshun he was “very hesitant” to make the switch but only agreed when the Dodgers promised it would be temporary.
“Because they will let me try to start again next season, it was a relatively easy decision to make,” he said.
Now it is the Dodgers who have the relatively easy decision. Sasaki will be upset, but the bullpen is surely a better option than an extended stay in Oklahoma City, where there are triple-A hitters whom he has already dominated. He’s too good for the minors. The problem is, as a starter, he’s also not good enough for the big leagues.
Into this limbo, the bullpen fits perfectly and if he’s unhappy, well, he was given a $6.5-million signing bonus to accept the ramifications of the following numbers:
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In 11 career starts, he has a 5.13 ERA.
In 11 career relief appearances, he has an 0.71 ERA.
You do the math.
Remember the Roki Sasaki of your October dreams?
Bullpen him.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
