Hernández: Why did Roki Sasaki sign with the Dodgers? Health not wealth drove his decision

Why now?

Why did Roki Sasaki insist on coming to the major leagues this winter?

The answer, the 23-year-old Sasaki confirmed at his introductory news conference at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, was related to elbow problems he experienced as a first-year player on the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan.

Sasaki, who was 18 at the time, encountered difficulties rehabilitating a strained muscle in his right arm. His slow recovery prompted him to visit multiple hospitals.

Read more: ‘They all wanted him here.’ How Shohei Ohtani, other Dodgers helped recruit Roki Sasaki

At one point, Sasaki was advised by a doctor to undergo Tommy John surgery.

Sasaki never had the operation, but the incident shaped his thinking. Years later, he found himself thinking about how he didn’t want to risk suffering a career-altering injury before pitching in the world’s most competitive league.

“You hear many voices that say I should have waited two more years [to come to the United States], but there are of course no guarantees about my condition in those two years,” Sasaki said in Japanese.

The burden of protecting the most talented arm ever produced in Japan officially shifted from the Marines to the Dodgers, who are aware of the responsibility they have inherited. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Sasaki has the talent to realize his ambition of becoming the first Japanese pitcher to win a Cy Young Award. General manager Brandon Gomes compared the 102.5-mph fireballer to Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Friedman and Gomes also know Sasaki is as fragile as he is gifted, and their team is now tasked with developing him without breaking him.

Read more: Dodgers officially welcome Roki Sasaki, plan to 'hit the ground running' with pitcher

While the Dodgers have transformed several mid-level prospects into legitimate major league pitchers, an alarming number of them have broken down in recent years. Last season alone, Emmet Sheehan, Kyle Hurt and River Ryan underwent reconstructive elbow surgeries.

Was Sasaki concerned?

“I’ve had numerous minor injuries in Japan, and I don’t think that’s solely a result of the direction of the team,” Sasaki said. “I think there are many things I can do myself, and things that I can improve. Of course, there’s uneasiness, but I think I don’t have a choice but to just make it work.”

Sasaki explored the subject of injuries in greater detail in an interview that was broadcast in Japan earlier in the day. He said on NHK’s “Close-Up Gendai” that contemplating an elbow reconstruction in his first year out of high school had a profound effect on him.

“Being at a stage in which I hadn’t thrown even one pitch as a pro, to be told like that …,” Sasaki said on the news program. “I thought I really didn’t know when I wouldn’t be able to play baseball anymore, when I wouldn’t be able to throw anymore, when I wouldn’t be able to perform the way I was.”

Eventually, Sasaki learned his problems were shoulder-related, as its effect on his nerves resulted in discomfort in his elbow. Sasaki did not throw a single pitch that season, but he still learned something.

“With just one pitch, [a baseball career can be] flipped upside down,” he said. “I really felt that something like that was a possibility. You don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Rather than wait two years, I think it’s best with this timing to challenge myself in the majors and continue to develop.”

By delaying his departure from the Marines by two more years, Sasaki could have signed a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He was posted before he was 25, which meant MLB classified him as an international amateur player and limited him to a minor league contract. He received a $6.5-million signing bonus.

“I decided the time I will spend in these two years was more valuable to me than money and stuff like that,” Sasaki said in his news conference at Dodger Stadium.

Compared with most Japanese pitchers who have signed with major league teams, Sasaki is relatively inexperienced. After spending his entire rookie year with the Marines in rehabilitation, he pitched just 394 innings over the next four seasons. Last season, he was 10-5 with a 2.35 earned-run average but pitched only 111 innings.

Read more: Hernández: By joining Dodgers, Roki Sasaki prioritizes development over being a team's top star

The Dodgers almost certainly won’t drastically increase the number of innings he pitches, but they also don’t have plans to postpone the start of his season to ensure he will be available in October. Sasaki is expected to break camp with the major league team.

“We don’t know at this point,” Friedman said when asked how Sasaki’s workload would be managed. “He’s going to go out and start the season, and we will continue to work with him on [his] routine between starts. There’s more travel here. But we don’t have any artificial number of innings. It’s going to be much more about partnering with him, getting that feedback, seeing how he bounces back between starts.”

Friedman said Sasaki asked the Dodgers whether they would use a six-man rotation.

“Now, with Shohei [Ohtani] and his two-way status, it just makes it that much easier,” Friedman said. “I think we are uniquely positioned for that, to be as flexible as we need to be, for it to be something that works best for Roki’s development and we have made that pledge to him and we will see that through in this partnership.”

The upside for the Dodgers is enormous. If they can help Sasaki avoid what he has long feared, they could have the best pitcher in baseball.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.