Dodgers make surprising medical decision on Rōki Sasaki after injury

The Los Angeles Dodgers have placed Rōki Sasaki on the injured list with a shoulder impingement. They have also made a decision on the next steps for him.

According to The Athletic's Fabian Ardaya, the Dodgers are not planning for Sasaki to have any medical intervention at this point, but rather just rest him.

"No plans as of right now for Roki Sasaki to have medical intervention (such as a painkilling injection) in his right shoulder," Ardaya wrote on X. "Will be no throw for a while, Dave Roberts said."

According to Dave Roberts, the Dodgers were made aware of the injury after his last start against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He allowed five runs in four innings of work, marking his worst outing as a big leaguer.

"We became aware of this after his last start in Arizona," Roberts said, per MLB.com's Kyle Glaser. "From what we gather, he’s felt some discomfort for the last few weeks, but given where we’re at as a pitching staff, he wanted to continue to go and persevere and fight through everything until his performance was going to be compromised. So that’s when he let us know where he was at physically."

Sasaki's velocity was down after he touched 100 mph in the opener in Tokyo. Since then, his fastball has been hovering in the low to mid-90s. Sasaki's shoulder injury would offer some explanation as to why his velocity had taken a dip.

"It's hard to tell if it's the main reason why my velo and command was affected," Sasaki said per Glaser. "But I'm sure that -- it's hard to tell if that's the main factor."

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The concerning factor here is that Sasaki has dealt with shoulder injuries in the past. He dealt with a similar injury in Japan last season, so the concern is that this could be a chronic thing for him. Sasaki noted that this injury, however, is not as bad.

"Last year I did have something similar, but actually worse," Sasaki said per Glaser. "It was something I was able to overcome and still perform. It's something that I somewhat feel, but not to the extent that I felt from before."

Roberts noted that there is no timeline for Sasaki to return. However, he did note that the injury offers an explanation for his performance so far. He has a 4.72 ERA and has struggled to get deep into games. Roberts noted that, knowing what they know now, it is clear his delivery was compromised as he was compensating for the injury.

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