Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki will not participate in the upcoming World Baseball Classic in March, according to multiple reports.
The decision comes after Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman met with Samurai Japan manager Hirokazu Ibata and asked that Sasaki be left off the roster, likely due to the flamethrower’s recent injury history.
The 24-year-old posted a 4.46 ERA over 36 1/3 innings in what was a disappointing debut campaign in Major League Baseball, but he returned as a reliever late in the year and made a strong impact in the postseason, giving up just one run across 10 2/3 innings to help the Dodgers capture their second straight World Series title.
Nicknamed the “Monster of the Reiwa Era,” Sasaki burst onto the Nippon Professional Baseball scene in 2021 and quickly established himself as one of the most dominant pitchers of his generation, topping at 102 mph on his fastball.
He posted a 2.10 ERA with an eye-popping 32.7% strikeout rate and 5.7% walk rate over 394 2/3 innings across four seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines. Most memorably, he threw a historic 19-strikeout perfect game as a 20-year-old in April 2022, and later played a key role in Japan’s WBC championship in March 2023, earning comparisons to a young Jacob deGrom and Stephen Strasburg.
After the 2024 season, Sasaki was somewhat surprisingly posted to MLB at just 23 years old in a move reminiscent of Shohei Ohtani’s early departure from his homeland. It is believed that Lotte had agreed to a posting clause when the Iwate, Japan native was drafted in 2019. Because of his age, he was subjected to international bonus pool restrictions and was limited to signing a minor league deal with Los Angeles despite his superstar pedigree.
That said, Sasaki has never thrown more than 130 innings in any of his five professional seasons and has continued to battle a series of injuries. In 2025, his velocity noticeably dipped early in the year, and he missed three months with a right shoulder impingement before returning in September to bolster the Dodgers’ postseason run out of the bullpen.
Still, his long-term upside remains as a starter, and keeping him off Japan’s WBC roster will give him a full spring training to ramp up for his sophomore MLB season.
Photo: Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki (11) throws during the fifth inning of a spring training baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds, Tuesday, March. 4, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)
