Rōki Sasaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shota Imanaga expected to pitch during Dodgers-Cubs series in Japan

The 2025 MLB Tokyo Series between the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers will feature a few native sons in the spotlight taking the mound over the course of the two games.

Cubs lefty pitcher Shota Imanaga and Dodgers starters Rōki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto will all see action when the teams open the season in Japan on March 18-19.

“Shota’s going to pitch in Japan,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said this week. “I think that’s mandated, kind of. I don’t think I have a choice, actually.”

The 31-year-old Imanaga made 29 starts in 2024, posting a 2.92 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, .225 opponent batting average and finishing the season with a 15-3 record.

While Shohei Ohtani will play, he won’t pitch as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said this month he doesn’t expect the three-time MLB MVP to return to the mound until May. Ohtani underwent a brace surgery on his torn UCL at the end of the 2023 season and spent the entire 2024 season as a full-time DH. He was initially expected to be ready to pitch by Opening Day 2025, but that timeline was complicated when he tore the labrum in his non-pitching shoulder in Game 2 of the World Series. That injury required another surgery.

Sasaki and Yamamoto are in the Dodgers’ plans to feature in both games in Tokyo.

“The expectation for both those guys to pitch is real. But you never know,” Roberts said on MLB Network’s “Hot Stove” on Wednesday. “Things can certainly change. But at the outset, that’s our anticipation.”

This would be Yamamoto’s second straight international start with the Dodgers after he made his MLB debut against the San Diego Padres in last season’s Seoul Series in Korea. Three months after signing a 12-year, $325 million deal Yamamoto was pulled after one inning, lasting only 43 pitches and allowing five runs on four hits.

Sasaki, 23, agreed to a deal with the Dodgers in January with a signing bonus reportedly worth $6.5 million. He pitched for Japan’s Chiba Lotte Marines in 2024, posting a 2.35 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and recording 129 strikeouts in 111 innings pitched.