MLB insider predicts stunning playoff role for returning Dodgers rookie Roki Sasaki

It might seem crazy now to call the Los Angeles Dodgers' bullpen a weakness, but that's where we are. The club entered the season with a three-headed monster at the back end. Tanner Scott signed one of the largest free-agent contracts ever given to a reliever. The baseball world lost its mind when Kirby Yates joined the club after posting a minuscule 1.17 ERA closing out games for the Texas Rangers last season. And of course, there was the incumbent, Blake Treinen, who has closer experience and entered 2025 with three straight seasons of a sub-2.00 ERA.

Fast forward to the season's final days, and out of three potential elite closer options, the Dodgers have... none. Or maybe better said, none that are reliable.

Scott is pushing a 5.00 ERA. Yates has been even worse, with a 5.23 mark that all but ensures he won't be with the club again next season (as he heads to the purgatory of the injured list). Treinen missed significant time with a forearm injury and has been woefully ineffective when healthy, to the point that his spot on the playoff roster is in question.

The Dodgers need a late-inning savior to close out games badly, and one MLB insider believes they can find one in an extremely unexpected source.

Tom Verducci predicts the Dodgers' playoff closer will be the player you least expect

MLB Network's Tom Verducci is predicting that Roki Sasaki will be the Dodgers' closer in the postseason. You heard that right. Roki Sasaki might be pitching high-leverage innings, including the ninth, during the Los Angeles' playoff run.

Sasaki has missed four months with a shoulder impingement and looked nothing like the phenom he was billed as during his time on a big league mound. His velocity was down, his pitch selection was questionable, and his control was an issue.

In his 34.1 innings over eight starts, he posted a less-than-stellar 4.72 ERA and a ghastly 6.20 FIP while striking out a middling 6.29 batters per nine innings and posting a sky-high 5.77 BB/9. At times, he looked like a deer in the headlights, unable to handle the pressure of pitching in the MLB.

However, as crazy as it sounds, a bullpen role, even in high-leverage situations, could be the cure to his ills. At the end of his rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City, he was used out of the bullpen and touched 100 miles per hour again with his fastball while posting two scoreless appearances. His first appearance with the big club in the bullpen went swimmingly in Arizona on Wednesday night.

Being able to air it out for just an inning could fix the velocity concern, at least for the time being. In addition, not having to face a lineup multiple times will allow the 23-year-old to simplify his repertoire and lean on only his best offerings. Lastly, riding the confidence of his stellar relief appearances in his rehab stint could alleviate the control issues that seemed to be as much mental as they were mechanical.

Despite the struggles and the injury, Sasaki is still an immense talent. Every single evaluator in baseball thought so, and there's no way that they're all wrong. With that, and the remedies that pitching in relief could provide, there's a legitimately decent chance that Sasaki can dominate, making Verducci's prediction not seem that far-fetched at all.