LOS ANGELES -- At the end of what has generally been a positive week for injured Dodgers starting pitchers, the team is hitting pause with rookie right-hander Roki Sasaki.
Sasaki stopped playing catch in the days before Sunday's finale against the Giants, and manager Dave Roberts said there's no timeline for him to resume throwing. There is now less certainty that Sasaki will be back this season, although the Dodgers are not counting out a return.
"Being thrust here into this environment certainly was a big undertaking for him. And then you layer in the health part of it, and then you layer he's a starting pitcher, the buildup, what that entails," Roberts said. "I think that that's the prudent way to go about it. Whatever we get from him, and expecting him to be back, obviously, and contributing.
"But I think, yeah, the mindset should be we got to plan on life without him, as far as this year."
Expectations for Sasaki were sky-high when he signed with the Dodgers this past offseason after four years as one of the best pitchers in Nippon Professional Baseball. He flashed some of that tantalizing potential but didn't put it all together in his first eight starts. He posted a 4.72 ERA across 34 1/3 innings before landing on the 15-day injured list with an impingement in his right shoulder on May 13.
Sasaki resumed throwing around two weeks after going on the IL. He didn't progress beyond light catch before being shut down again this week. When the 23-year-old right-hander last spoke to the media, one day after going on the IL, he acknowledged that this shoulder injury is similar to the one that caused him to miss time in his last season in Japan.
"Last year, I did have something similar, but actually worse," Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton. "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."
The Dodgers had said that Sasaki was pain-free once he picked up a baseball again, but Roberts said that some discomfort returned as Sasaki attempted to ramp back up. Sasaki has had no medical intervention other than a pain-killing injection, and he's not expected to get any additional tests on his shoulder.
"I think that we've taken the scans," Roberts said. "So right now, it's kind of a comfort thing for him and a confidence thing."
The team has preached patience with its injured starting pitchers this year, maintaining that the goal is to bring everybody back the right way -- and hopefully in time for another deep postseason run.
The Dodgers' rotation is almost back at five healthy starters, with the expected addition of Emmet Sheehan this coming week. Shohei Ohtani will return to the mound as an opener on Monday night. And while Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell are still a ways away, Glasnow has resumed facing hitters and Snell is back to throwing bullpen sessions.
In all likelihood, the Dodgers have the depth to get by if Sasaki doesn't return by the end of the season, even though they're hopeful he'll still be a part of their plans.