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The Dodgers are placing Roki Sasaki on the injured list after he left his Tuesday start early due to a blister on his right middle finger, per Fabian Ardaya at MLB Trade Rumors. The move comes one day after Sasaki exited his outing against the Cardinals, making this a quick but not unexpected decision by the club.

Sasaki, who signed with the Dodgers ahead of the 2025 season in one of the most anticipated international signings in recent memory, has dealt with durability questions going back to his time in Japan’s NPB. He was brilliant with the Chiba Lotte Marines — the 100-mph fastball, the devastating splitter, the perfect game — but his innings were carefully managed, and minor physical setbacks were a recurring theme. Blisters are notoriously tricky for pitchers. They’re not structurally serious, but they can linger, and for a guy whose entire arsenal depends on finger feel and spin, you don’t mess around with them. The fact that the Dodgers moved quickly to get him on the IL rather than trying a skip-a-start approach tells you they want this fully healed before he throws again.

The timing is frustrating. Sasaki has been a key part of what the Dodgers are building with their rotation down the stretch, and losing him — even for a minimum IL stint — puts more pressure on a pitching staff that’s already been navigating its share of absences this season. Tyler Glasnow just came back from the 60-day IL, and Shohei Ohtani is still working through his pitching rehab. Yoshinobu Yamamoto made his last start on August 21. The depth is there, but you’d rather not be dipping into it this often in late August.

For the short term, the Dodgers will likely lean on their AAA arms to fill the gap. Guys like Gavin Stone, Bobby Miller, and Landon Knack have all been pitching recently in Oklahoma City and could be candidates depending on how the rotation lines up. Emmet Sheehan is another name to watch. The organization has built exactly this kind of pitching depth for moments like these, so there’s no reason to panic — but the margin for error gets thinner every time someone goes down.

I’ll be watching the timeline closely. Blisters can resolve in a matter of days, or they can keep cracking open and drag on for weeks. Sasaki’s workload has been managed carefully all season, and the Dodgers aren’t going to rush him back just because September is approaching. The smart play is to let the blister heal completely, get him back on the mound when it’s right, and trust the depth in the meantime. That’s what it’s there for.

The corresponding roster move hasn’t been announced yet, so we’ll update this when the Dodgers make the transaction official and we know who’s coming up to fill the spot.

Source(s): Fabian Ardaya (MLB Trade Rumors) | First reported: August 27, 2026 4:49 AM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers