2025 Topps Chrome cover athlete is the last player Dodgers fans wanted to see

Although it hurts to admit, Dodgers fans have to acknowledge that Roki Sasaki's rookie season has been incredibly disappointing so far. For all of the hype around him in the offseason, which led over half of the league to at least try to approach him with offers, Sasaki only pitched 34 1/3 innings for a nearly 5.00 ERA before he went onto the IL with a shoulder impingement that he's made almost no progress on the road back from.

So there's something morbidly funny about Topps choosing Sasaki to grace the cover of a flagship product, Topps Chrome.

It's likely that the choice was made a while ago, before Sasaki underperformed and ran into a major injury roadblock, but the clowning happening in the replies of Topps' official announcement is, unfortunately, warranted.

Aaron Judge was featured on the cover of Series 1, Shohei Ohtani on Series 2 — both more than understandable (if not a little basic) choices as last year's MVPs. Last year, the Chrome cover went to Elly de la Cruz, who did manage to live up to the hype. He got his first All-Star nod and placed eighth in MVP voting. It's almost impossible that Sasaki gets either of those nods.

Even Dodgers fans have to laugh at Roki Sasaki covering 2025 Topps Chrome

Topps sort of dropped the ball with their 2024 Chrome Update cover player too, choosing the Orioles' Jackson Holliday after he had a disappointing debut season and was demoted back to the minors after batting .059 in 10 major league games.

Sasaki's rookie card and any parallels, relics, or autographs included are still going to be highly sought-after given his long-term potential — and the current prices on Sasaki's autographed cards are still very high — but the timing of this particular announcement is a bitter reminder to Dodgers fans of his ineffectiveness so far this season. To be fair to the rookie, the transition from NPB to MLB is a difficult one, but it might've been a little more forgivable if he also managed to stay healthy.

The Dodgers may or may not be without Sasaki for the rest of the season, so anyone trying to sell one of his cards is going to have to sit on it for a while.