The Los Angeles Dodgers brought Roki Sasaki into the season with a lot of hype.
Right now, though, the only feeling about Sasaki is concern.
Manager Dave Roberts told reporters that Sasaki has stopped throwing in his rehab from a right shoulder injury.
"Sasaki still doesn’t feel comfortable with his shoulder throwing with intensity," The Athletic's Fabian Ardaya wrote on X. "Won’t go for new testing, but sure sounds like it’s an if, not when he is back this year from Roberts’ comments."
Sasaki has been on the Injured List for more than a month with what was initially classified as right shoulder impingement.
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The 23-year old Japanese right-handed pitcher has made eight MLB starts for the Dodgers.
In that time, he was 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA. Sasaki has 24 strikeouts in 34.1 innings pitched.
L.A. has gotten almost always positive injury news this season about Shohei Ohtani in his return, aside from one small setback that's an old story at this point.
But apparently it can't all be good, even for the powerful Dodgers.
Sasaski sounds like he's got a long way to go to get back on a big league mound.
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