Why Roki Sasakis blister could be a Dodgers blessing in disguise

Welcome to the California Post’s weekly Dodgers recap, where we review the week that was, hand out very official awards and take stock of the state of the season.Will Roki Sasaki come back from blister as starter or reliever?Roki Sasaki could see the finish line.As Sasaki was closing in on his goal of staying in the Dodgers’ starting rotation for the entire season, a blister suddenly formed on the middle finger of his pitching hand in his start this week in Atlanta.The blister ruptured, and Sasaki was placed on the injured list.But what initially looked like a roadblock could wind up being a convenient detour.Because Sasaki is expected to be deployed as a reliever again in the playoffs, especially now with Tyler Glasnow back in the rotation and Shohei Ohtani following close behind.As much as the Dodgers want to pretend otherwise, Sasaki is their best option to close games for them in October, just as he was last year.Edwin Diaz can’t be counted on at this point.

Tanner Scott lost two games this week in the Braves’ three-game sweep of the Dodgers.But how would Sasaki transition to a high-leverage, late-inning role when he was insisting on starting the entire regular season?The blister might have taken care of that problem, as Sasaki figures to be more open to making bullpen trial runs now that his goal is out of reach.“There’s certainly value in that,” Roberts said.Depending on how long Sasaki is sidelined by his blister, Roberts said he could return from the injured list as a starter.“There’s also value at some point – and I don’t know the schedule in the next two weeks, off days and all that stuff and where starters are going to be – with having him inserted to give other guys a blow,” Roberts said.To the credit of the Dodgers, they have taken Sasaki’s wishes into consideration in a situation in which Sasaki has no leverage over them.When Sasaki joined the Dodgers before last season, he did so on a standard minor-league contract.Becau...