Stop trying to make Roki Sasaki a starter. He belongs in the bullpen

The fans chanted his name. His teammates toasted his name. His manager deified his name, saying he had just unleashed one of the greatest bullpen performances in baseball history.

Everyone loved him. Nobody doubted him. And in the middle of the Dodgers’ playoff run last October, no one was more valuable than him.

Do you remember Roki Sasaki?

It’s hard, but try.

Remember his first appearance last October, last fall, ending the deciding game of the wild-card series against the Cincinnati Reds, one no-hitter, two strikeouts, all disappearing at 100 mph from this skinny kid’s right arm?

That was the beginning of the chants, arguably louder than for any other player in the history of Dodger Stadium, louder than Moo-kie, deeper than Fred-die, chants thunderous enough to seemingly be heard for a lifetime.

“Ro-ki, Ro-ki, Ro-ki!”

Do you remember what happened next? He finished the first two wins of the Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies amid a jeering crowd at Citizens Bank Park, becoming the first pitcher in history to record his first two career postseason saves.

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’ shaky hopes hanging on him, Sasaki pitched three perfect innings to essentially win the deciding Game 4.

Do you remember that? He began his work in the eighth inning, passing Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm. He finished his job after the 10th by being hugged by jubilant manager Dave Roberts while still on the field.

The Dodgers won it in the 11th thanks to this incredible throwing error by Phillies reliever Orion Kerkering and the rest is brilliant blue history.

The Dodgers couldn’t have won the World Series without Sasaki, and judging by their reaction after that game against the Phillies, they thought they had found their closest future.

“One of the greatest appearances ever out of the pen,” Roberts said.

Fellow Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow went even further, saying, “Since… coming out of the bullpen, he’s honestly one of the best pitchers I’ve ever seen.” »

The biggest compliment, however, was paid by teammate Miguel Rojas, who gave a post-match toast in his honor.

“Shot for Roki!” » he shouted.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon, at Dodger Stadium, where the starting pitcher appears lost.

He can’t find the strike zone. He can’t find his fastball. He cannot find himself.

He allows five hits and five walks in four innings. It requires the use of four relievers. He ultimately found himself struggling with an 0-2 record with a 6.23 ERA after accumulating a 4.46 ERA in eight starts last season.

The fans faintly begin to chant his name, then their voices fade into silence. No one comes to hug him. No one is calling him the greatest pitcher of all time.

He is no longer the benefactor of a toast, because he East grill.

Do you remember Roki Sasaki?

Not like that, you don’t do it.

The former star reliever became the most embattled starter and the one who made the first big move of the season inevitable.

They have to put him back in the pen, right?

They need to put him back where he found his greatest success, where his lack of pitch variety won’t hurt him, where he can throw 100 mph on 20 pitches and save the team with his strength.

As everyone showed last October, the bullpen is where he belongs. The rotation, featuring budding star Justin Wrobleski, will survive without him. The bullpen needs him more.

Don’t think the Dodgers crowd is shrugging their shoulders over Edwin Díaz’s recent dead arm condition. Something was wrong. Maybe nothing serious, nothing long term, but something was wrong.

You don’t bring the highest-paid player in history closer and use him in back-to-back save situations unless something went wrong. You don’t ask him to throw a bullpen to the Dodgers officials unless something was wrong.

That “something” may have already been fixed, as Díaz was available to pitch Wednesday after being out for four days, but still. He could use some help, and that’s exactly what Sasaki is proposing and exactly what should happen.

Come on Dodgers, send it across the field and into the left field corner where it belongs.

Put him in the bullpen now.

“My goal is, in a way, to dig a little deeper into the game,” he told the media on Sunday through his interpreter Kensuke Okubo.

No, no, no. It does not have enough land to deepen the games. He has just enough pitches – a fastball and a splitter – to last two innings, at most.

Look at this surprising statistic:

In his first two innings of work, in three starts, he didn’t allow a single earned run.

In his other seven innings of work, he allowed nine earned runs.

Enough said. He’s a two-pitch pitcher who needs to be moved from the rotation to relief, and I don’t think that hasn’t been done here before.

Éric Gagné made 48 starts between 1999 and 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 doing it again, using his strength and skill and, yes, maybe steroids, to convert a record 84 consecutive save chances while winning a Cy Young and coining the phrase “Game Over.”

Gagne was like Sasaki long before Sasaki. Even its entrance song, “Welcome to the Jungle,” matches Sasaki’s “Bailalo Rocky” with its ominous tones.

This is all so obvious that it’s a miracle the Dodgers haven’t already put him in the bullpen. But that’s just the Dodgers being the Dodgers, an organization that puts players first.

Sasaki wants to be a starter. When they convinced him to move to the bullpen last October, the Dodgers promised him he would return to the rotation.

“We were just honest with him: As it stood, the only real path … was in the bullpen,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters at the time. “But we wanted his full buy-in.”

Sasaki, who primarily started out growing up in Japan, told Japanese magazine Shukan Bunshun that he was “very hesitant” about making the change, but only agreed when the Dodgers promised it would be temporary.

“As they will let me try to start again next season, it was a relatively easy decision to make,” he said.

It is now 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 he’s already dominated. He’s too good for the minors. The problem is that as a starter, he’s not good enough for the big leagues either.

In this limbo, the bullpen fits in just fine and if he’s unhappy, well, he was given a $6.5 million signing bonus to accept the ramifications of the following numbers:

In 11 career starts, he has a 5.13 ERA.

In 11 career relief appearances, he has a 0.71 ERA.

You do the math.

Remember the Roki Sasaki of your October dreams?

Take it off.