Dodgers manager shares scary quote about Yoshinobu Yamamoto

The Los Angeles Dodgers may be even scarier in 2025 based on what manager Dave Roberts had to say about one of his star pitchers.

Roberts had a very scary quote about Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto when addressing the media on Monday. According to Roberts, Yamamoto is “considerably ahead of where he was last year,” when he was entering his first season in Major League Baseball.

Roberts had effusive praise for the command and delivery of Yamamoto’s pitches, and appears to be expecting huge things from the pitcher in 2025.

Dave Roberts said Yoshinobu Yamamoto is “considerably ahead of where he was last year.”

Yamamoto unquestionably took some time to acclimate to a new league in 2024. After allowing 11 earned runs in his first 22 innings, he posted a 2.25 ERA over his next nine starts before an injury derailed much of his season.

Yamamoto was able to come back in the postseason and was not quite as sharp, though there may have been a reason for that.

The Dodgers added Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki to their rotation in the offseason, with Yamamoto said to be instrumental in the latter move. Those additions, along with the return of Shohei Ohtani to pitching duty, figure to make the rotation even more imposing. If Yamamoto can improve on his 2024 numbers, they will be extraordinarily difficult to beat.

In total, Yamamoto went 7-2 with a 3.00 ERA in 18 starts as a rookie. Now fully healthy and more comfortable, there is no reason to think he cannot improve on that.

Dodgers’ Dave Roberts gives ‘clean and consistent’ take on Roki Sasaki

The Los Angeles Dodgers, the richest team in the MLB both literally and figuratively, only got richer this past offseason. The Dodgers were the team that managed to secure the services of burgeoning Japanese international Roki Sasaki, a 23-year-old flamethrower who’s expected to be emerge as a quality rotation piece for years to come. It has to be said, however, that transitioning stateside requires a bit of an adjustment period, so Sasaki has to be cut some slack in case he doesn’t produce immediately.

Nonetheless, the early results out of the Dodgers’ camp bode well for Sasaki’s chances of becoming an immediate producer. Manager Dave Roberts lauded the 23-year-old for improving every single day in camp, integrating himself within the team rather quickly.

“(It) was more clean and consistent, and there probably was some nerves in that first one. But I think each outing, each time he takes the mound, he’s going to get more and more comfortable. Certainly the next check point is when he faces some hitters, and then we get him into a Cactus League game. But the talent is still there, obviously,” Roberts said, via Dodgers Nation.

The Dodgers catchers working with Sasaki have been very impressed with him thus far, with Hunter Feduccia and Austin Barnes praising the Japanese international for his deep pitch mix and his ability to confound hitters.

“He was throwing his fastball, splitter and curveball. I thought all three of them looked good. The fastball command was there. I’m sure he’s kind of getting used to the balls,” Feduccia said.

“Oh my gosh, The fastball is a big fastball, it has a lot of carry and ride to it. The ball jumps at you. And the split-finger is different. I’ve never seen a pitch like that before. It’s hard to catch sometimes, it tumbles a lot, it moves all over the place. It goes in different directions. A crazy talent. It’s exciting to see what he’s going to do,” Barnes added.