Blake Treinen's comments on Roki Sasaki show Dodgers bullpen in dire need of anything

Desperation creates...diamonds?

Eric Cole

Los Angeles Dodgers v Baltimore Orioles / Jess Rapfogel/GettyImages

Few members of the Los Angeles Dodgers better encapsulate their ailing bullpen's leakiness than Blake Treinen. Treinen got a big contract (for a reliever), missed a ton of time this season with an arm injury, and has pitched poorly for a couple of months now. If that doesn't sound like a 2025 Dodgers bullpen arm, then you just haven't been paying attention.

After finishing the season with an 11.74 ERA and 6.40 FIP in his last 10 appearances, the Dodgers just had to hope the Treinen would figure things out in the playoffs and that some other arms would step up. Thankfully, Roki Sasaki has returned and has looked extremely sharp in a very small sample, but Treinen has continued to implode and give LA fans heart attacks along the way.

The saddest part of the whole thing? Treinen is aware of just how bad he has been and even went as far as to call Sasaki "a godsend" for the Dodgers. While that might technically be true, that Sasaki's short run of success in the playoffs is being hailed by Treinen speaks to how embarrassing the bullpen has become.

That Roki Sasaki is "a godsend" is a scathing indictment of Dodgers' attempt to build a bullpen

Coming into the 2025 season, Sasaki was supposed to be a hot shot starting pitcher and the Dodgers were supposed to have an insane bullpen. In addition to keeping Treinen around, LA spent big to sign Tanner Scott to handle high leverage situations, and they kept most of the unit that helped win the World Series. However, Scott has proven to be a massive disappointment, and a host of injuries to guys like Brusdar Graterol and Michael Kopech turned the bullpen into a liability.

Sasaki's path to this point has been anything but smooth as well. Before he somehow became the Dodgers' best option to close out games, Sasaki struggled to find his command and consistency in LA's rotation and ended up missing the bulk of the season after being diagnosed with a shoulder impingement in May. He has looked great so far, but lets not pretend that Sasaki has this track record of saving the Dodgers that he simply doesn't have.

Unfortunately, Sasaki's performance (also known as just doing his job) stands out in the Dodgers' bullpen because most of those other guys can't stay on the mound and/or have struggled so much in recent months. It is nice to have some good news when it comes to LA's relievers, but that Sasaki's own teammate calling him a "godsend" already speaks volumes to the current state of the bullpen, even in their own eyes.

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.