Roki Sasaki lands on injured list with shoulder impingement

LOS ANGELES – Roki Sasaki’s highly anticipated rookie season has taken another disappointing turn.

The Dodgers placed Sasaki on the 15-day injured list with a right shoulder impingement on Tuesday prior to their series opener against the Athletics. Right-handed reliever J.P. Feyereisen was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City in a corresponding move.

Sasaki, 23, averaged 94.8 mph on his fastball in his last start against Arizona on May 9, down more than 1 mph from his season average. He allowed five hits and five runs in four innings and didn’t record a strikeout for the first time in his brief Major League career.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Sasaki felt soreness in his arm after the game. Sasaki did not throw his scheduled bullpen session on Tuesday before being officially placed on the IL.

“Physically, he was a little bit sore afterwards, and that's something that we're still kind of trying to figure out,” Roberts said. “You know, what's normal, what's kind of not normal. … We want to make sure that he's in a good spot, physically and mentally.”

Roberts added following the Dodgers’ 11-1 loss to the Athletics that Sasaki does not have a timetable to return.

Armed with a triple-digit fastball and a devastating splitter, Sasaki emerged as the latest pitching phenom from Japan and was hotly pursued by nearly every MLB team after being posted last winter.

The Dodgers ultimately won the Sasaki sweepstakes and inserted him immediately into their starting rotation. The expectation, both within the Dodgers organization and throughout MLB, was that Sasaki would make an instant MLB impact like his predecessors and new teammates Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani.

Instead, Sasaki’s rookie season has been a struggle. He is 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA in eight starts for the Dodgers. He’s pitched 34 1/3 innings – an average of less than 4 1/3 innings per start – and has nearly as many walks (22) as strikeouts (24).

Most notably, his average fastball velocity has been down 3-4 mph from its peak in Japan.

Roberts said he felt Sasaki’s decline in velocity was due in part to physical concerns, along with mechanical issues.

“I think it’s a combo,” Roberts said. “I think that there is a command component. I think there is a trying to go out there and compete every fifth or sixth day or sixth or seventh day to get Major League hitters out.

“We’re still trying to have conversations to see where he’s at. Because at the end of the day, we want to make sure he is performing up to his capabilities and up to our capabilities and our expectations. So there’s kind of a lot of things that we’re trying to suss out right now.”

Sasaki joins left-hander Blake Snell (left shoulder inflammation) and right-hander Tyler Glasnow (right shoulder inflammation) as high-profile starters on the injured list for the Dodgers.

The Dodgers rotation will now consist of Yamamoto, Landon Knack, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Clayton Kershaw, who will come off the IL and make his season debut on Saturday against the Angels at Dodger Stadium.