Roki Sasaki — 2026 Season

2026 Season Stats

Pitching stats and MLB-wide rank · 2026 Season

Stat	2026	MLB Rank
ERA	4.71	—
WHIP	1.29	—
W	4	—
L	5	—
K	94	—
IP	93.2	—
SV	0	—
GS	18	—

2026 Season Highlights

As of 7/15, Roki Sasaki remains a fixture in the Dodgers' starting rotation for the 2026 season. Every appearance he's made this year has come as a starter, reflecting a full-time rotation role. His results on the mound have been uneven, with consistency emerging as an ongoing challenge. Now in his second MLB season after debuting in 2025, he continues to gain experience at the big-league level.

In 2026, Roki Sasaki is pitching what amounts to his true "Dodgers Year 1." His 2025 MLB debut was cut short by a right shoulder injury after just 10 starts — not enough to form a reliable sample on his real ceiling. This season, with a full Opening Day rotation slot, every start adds to the picture of what the "Monster of the Reiwa Era" can do at the highest level. The stats box above is updated daily — follow along as the story unfolds. Sasaki is a right-handed power pitcher who threw a perfect game in NPB at age 20 in April 2022 — the youngest ever in Japanese professional baseball. A first-round pick by the Lotte Marines in 2019 from Ofunato High School in Iwate Prefecture, he dominated NPB for five seasons with a career ERA of 1.85 and a K/9 of 11.96 — one of the highest rates in modern Japanese baseball. His arsenal is built around a four-seam fastball (55% usage) that touches 165km/h (102.5mph) and a diving forkball (35% usage) that generates elite swing-and-miss rates at high velocity. Key metrics to watch in 2026: his walk rate (BB/9 improvement), durability (reaching the innings threshold), and maintaining his elite K/9. A healthy full season projects to a sub-3.00 ERA and 180+ strikeouts — numbers that would cement his status as one of baseball's elite starters.

1Sasaki has held a rotation spot with the Dodgers throughout the 2026 season, making every one of his appearances as a starter. Consistency remains a work in progress, with his results fluctuating from outing to outing.
2In Japan, Sasaki threw a perfect game as the youngest pitcher ever to do so, establishing himself as one of the sport's most talked-about arms at a young age. Known for his exceptional fastball, he was also part of Japan's championship-winning roster at the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
3Since joining the Dodgers in 2025 alongside fellow Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Sasaki has continued building big-league experience. With a full season of starts under his belt this year, how much further he can improve his consistency is worth watching.

DETAIL · ANALYSIS

Detailed Analysis

In-depth metrics aggregated from every at-bat and pitch.

Data as of: 2026-07-19

Expand detailed analysis ▾

Recent Form (Last 10 Starts)

Older games on the left, most recent on the right. Color shows how they played.

Best: 6IP+ / ≤1ER · Good: 5IP+ / ≤2ER · OK: 4IP+ / ≤3ER · 4ER · ≥5ER (blowup)

Pitch Arsenal

Current season pitch data by type. Velocity, spin rate, movement, whiff rate, and CSW% at a glance.

Pitch	Usage	Velo (mph)	Spin	H-Mvmt	V-Mvmt	Whiff%	CSW%
Four-Seam Fastball	43.3%	97.7	2,245	-5.9"	+9.6"	15.9%	23.9%
Splitter	33.0%	88.8	846	-4.3"	+0.5"	33.9%	25.9%
Slider	20.9%	86.7	1,974	+0.3"	-0.7"	37.4%	34.4%
Forkball	2.0%	86.7	1,075	-2.5"	-0.1"	8.3%	15.6%
Cutter	0.4%	87.2	—	—	—	—	16.7%
Sinker	0.4%	96.7	2,193	-7.4"	+8.5"	100.0%	50.0%

H-Mvmt/V-Mvmt (inch): movement vs. a spinless ball. + = toward 3B / up, − = toward 1B / down. Whiff% = whiffs / swings, CSW% = (called strikes + whiffs) / pitches.

Handedness & Home/Away Splits

Situational splits for the current season. See strengths and weaknesses by scenario.

vs Handedness

Split	OAVG	OOPS	HR	K	BB
vs RHB	.250	.857	9	38	11
vs LHB	.243	.774	10	47	23

Home / Away

Split	OAVG	OOPS	HR	K	BB
Home	.243	.839	13	51	16
Away	.250	.781	6	34	18

Year-over-Year Performance Trend

Career-long performance trends for every key stat. How does this year compare to history?

Season	G	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	BB/9	K
2025	10	36.1	4.46	1.43	6.94	5.45	28
2026Now	17	86.2	4.98	1.34	8.83	3.53	85

Full Game Log (Pitching)

All 18 games of the 2026 season. Showing latest 10; click to expand.

Date	Opp	IP	H	ER	BB	K	ER/9
07/25	@ NYM	7.0	3	1	2	9	1.29
07/18	@ NYY	5.2	5	0	1	5	0.00
07/09	vs COL	6.0	4	3	1	5	4.50
07/03	vs SD	3.0	7	6	2	3	18.00
06/27	@ SD	4.0	3	3	5	2	6.75
06/20	vs BAL	5.2	4	3	1	6	4.76
06/13	@ CWS	4.1	7	7	3	4	14.54
06/06	vs LAA	7.0	2	0	2	10	0.00
05/31	vs PHI	5.1	3	1	1	7	1.69
05/24	@ MIL	5.0	4	2	2	4	3.60

SHOW REMAINING 8 GAMES ▾

Date	Opp	IP	H	ER	BB	K	ER/9
05/18	@ LAA	7.0	4	1	0	8	1.29
05/12	vs SF	5.0	6	3	1	5	5.40
05/03	@ STL	6.0	5	3	2	4	4.50
04/26	vs CHC	5.0	7	4	1	5	7.20
04/20	@ COL	4.2	7	3	2	2	5.79
04/13	vs TEX	4.0	5	2	5	6	4.50
04/06	@ WSH	5.0	5	6	3	5	10.80
03/31	vs CLE	4.0	4	1	2	4	2.25

Year-over-Year (2026 vs 2025)

Green = improvement, red = decline. "—" means no data in the same month last year.

Pitching

	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul
ERA	-3.54	+4.18	-4.82	—	—
K	-1	+3	+24	—	—
WHIP	-1.29	+0.77	-0.68	—	—

AI · SEASON ANALYSIS

Roki Sasaki 2026 Season AI Analysis

Comprehensive 2026 season analysis generated by Claude AI from stats data (as of Jul 20, 2026).

Overview

Sasaki's 2026 line (17G, 86.2 IP, 4.98 ERA, 1.34 WHIP) sits below the MLB average on both rate stats — ERA is nearly a run and a half worse than league average (3.59) and firmly outside the P75 band (2.92), while WHIP (1.19 avg, 1.09 P75) tells the same story. His K/9 of 8.83 is essentially at the league median (8.84) but well short of P75 (10.16). Overall this reads as a below-average full-season workload from a pitcher still stabilizing his command, not a rotation arm performing at league norms yet.

Strengths

The clearest positive is durability and role growth: 17 starts and 86.2 IP in 2026 versus just 10 starts and 36.1 IP in 2025 shows he has moved from a limited, managed workload to a full rotation spot. Strikeout production has also taken a real step forward — K/9 climbed from 6.94 in 2025 to 8.83 this year, now sitting at the MLB median rather than well below it. The raw strikeout total (85) reflects a pitcher generating consistent swing-and-miss over a full season, which is the more predictive underlying skill compared to ERA in a small-to-medium sample.

Areas to Improve

Command remains the primary drag. A BB/9 of 3.53 is well above the MLB average of 2.77 and far from the P75 mark of 2.10, indicating free passes are inflating both WHIP and ERA. The 4.98 ERA and 1.34 WHIP each land below MLB average and outside the P75 range, suggesting traffic on the bases is translating into runs allowed at an above-average rate. Given K/9 is only at league median, the gap between raw stuff and run prevention appears walk-driven rather than a contact-quality problem.

Looking Ahead

The season-over-season jump in K/9 (6.94 to 8.83) alongside a near tripling of innings volume points to a pitcher who is throwing more often and missing more bats, which are both encouraging trendlines independent of ERA. The path to a league-average ERA runs directly through walk rate: shaving even one walk per nine innings toward the 2.77 MLB average would meaningfully tighten WHIP and likely bring ERA closer to the 3.59-4.00 range. Expect volatility start-to-start until command stabilizes, with strikeout rate as the more reliable signal to track for the remainder of the season.

AI-generated content (Claude) · Based on stats as of Jul 20, 2026

Detailed Analysis

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Season Analysis

Season Progress

ERA

↓ Lower is better

WHIP

↓ Lower is better

Strikeouts

Wins

Monthly Stats

ERA

vs MLB Monthly Avg↓ Lower is better

WHIP

vs MLB Monthly Avg↓ Lower is better

Strikeouts

Wins

Season Analysis

Loading season chart…

Splits vs LHP / RHP

Season stats vs right-handed and left-handed batters

vs RHP/RHB

.241OPS .835 / HR 10

vs LHP/LHB

.237OPS .755 / HR 10

Metrics Deep Dive

MLB-wide percentile rank, defensive and pitching metric summaries, pitch-type stats, and batted-ball distribution.

Pitching — MLB-wide Standing

K/9 ranks in the top 56% of MLB. The rest sit closer to league average.

ERA4.98

WHIP1.34

strikeouts85

K/98.83

Bars show percentile rank among MLB-wide qualified players.

2026 Pitching Metrics Summary (FIP / WHIP / K/9)

FIP

5.18

MLB average ≈ 4.00 · lower is better

Not yet at the qualifying pace — reference value

WHIP

1.29

MLB average ≈ 1.30 · lower is better

Not yet at the qualifying pace — reference value

Strikeouts per 9 (K/9)

9.03

MLB average ≈ 8.5 · higher is better

Not yet at the qualifying pace — reference value

Verify at the source:Baseball Savant FanGraphs

Source: MLB Stats API pitching stats (2026 season) · FIP calculated on-site (cFIP 3.10)

PITCHER · FIP

What is Roki Sasaki's FIP? 5.18 in 2026

FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) measures a pitcher's true skill using only home runs, walks, hit-by-pitches and strikeouts — outcomes the pitcher controls. By stripping out defense and luck, it tracks real ability more closely than ERA.

Roki Sasaki's 2026 FIP is 5.18, rated as "below average". That's 1.18 above the MLB average of about 4.00, leaving room to improve.

Compare with other Japanese pitchers in the FIP ranking

Pitch Type K% & BA Against

K% / BA-against / Whiff% by pitch type this season. K% is based on at-bats where each type was the strikeout pitch.

Pitch	Usage	K%	BAA	Whiff%
Four-Seam Fastball	43.3%	14.6%	.377	15.9%
Splitter	33.0%	29.5%	.253	33.9%
Slider	20.9%	29.9%	.333	37.4%
Forkball	2.0%	10.0%	.250	8.3%

K%: rate of strikeouts among plate appearances where this pitch type was the final pitch. Whiff%: whiffs per swing. Types with fewer than 10 pitches excluded.

Splits by Batter Handedness

BA / OPS against and WHIP vs right-handed and left-handed batters this season. Spot weaknesses by batter type.

Split	BAA	OPS	WHIP	K	IP
vs RHB	.241	.835	1.20	42	41.0
vs LHB	.237	.755	1.37	52	52.2

Game Log

2026 Season Appearance Log

18 starts · 94 total strikeouts

Season Best K

10K

Sat, Jun 6 vs LAA

Season Debut

Tue, Mar 31 vs CLE

4.0IP · 4K

Date	Opp	IP	K	HR	BB	Dec
7/25	@NYM	7.0	9	1	2	W
7/18	@NYY	5.2	5	-	1	-
7/9	vsCOL	6.0	5	2	1	-
7/3	vsSD	3.0	3	3	2	-
6/27	@SD	4.0	2	1	5	L
6/20	vsBAL	5.2	6	2	1	-
6/13	@CWS	4.1	4	1	3	L
6/6	vsLAA	7.0	10	-	2	-
5/31	vsPHI	5.1	7	1	1	-
5/24	@MIL	5.0	4	-	2	W
5/18	@LAA	7.0	8	-	0	W
5/12	vsSF	5.0	5	1	1	-
5/3	@STL	6.0	4	1	2	L
4/26	vsCHC	5.0	5	3	1	W
4/20	@COL	4.2	2	1	2	-
4/13	vsTEX	4.0	6	1	5	L
4/6	@WSH	5.0	5	2	3	-
3/31	vsCLE	4.0	4	-	2	L