Rōki Sasaki gives Mariners fans another excuse to dread end of 2025 season

For Seattle Mariners fans, watching Rōki Sasaki's spring training debut was a glimpse at what might have been and a hint at what may come.

Let's go ahead and put this in the "Just Sayin'" file: The Mariners end their 2025 season with a three-game set against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and it is already a scary thought that Sasaki could be at the center of the series.

The 23-year-old wasn't merely as advertised in the Dodgers' exhibition against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday. He was better, logging three scoreless innings in which he fanned five of the 13 batters he faced. Sasaki regularly hit 99 mph on the gun and had Reds hitters looking helpless against a barrage of fiendish sliders and splitters.

The immediate impact of Sasaki's arrival is basically nonexistent for the Mariners. He's with the reigning World Series champs in the National League West. The Mariners are in the American League West, where FanGraphs gives them solid odds of making the playoffs (57.4 percent) and winning the division (31.8 percent).

Nonetheless, there's some palpable one-that-got-away energy in the air.

The Mariners didn't get Sasaki, but they wanted him

Heading into the 2024-25 offseason, the last thing the Mariners needed was another young, talented starting pitcher. Yet as with every other franchise in MLB, they had their eye on Sasaki anyway.

The Mariners were serious enough about pursuing the fireballing youngster to involve Ichiro Suzuki in the recruiting process. And at the outset, at least, general manager Jerry Dipoto was feeling bullish.

“We have a good story to tell,” Dipoto said at the Winter Meetings, per Adam Jude of the Seattle Times.

In retrospect, it is comforting that Sasaki didn't break Mariners fans' hearts at the last minute. They didn't make the first cut of finalists, much less the second. And contrary to other matters related to free agency, at least Sasaki's spurning of Seattle didn't come down to money. As an amateur free agent, he got a mere $6.5 million signing bonus from the Dodgers.

The Mariners and Dodgers are on a collision course

If all goes well for the Dodgers and Mariners in 2025, both clubs' playoff fates will be decided before they meet at T-Mobile Park between September 26 and 28.

Mariners fans have reasons to feel anxious about that, however. After the team made the playoffs in 2022 — it was kind of a big deal — after 21 years away, it wasn't until the very ends of the last two seasons (September 30 and September 26, respectively) that they were left shut out of October. Effectively, both Mariners clubs stumbled at the finish line.

The Mariners don't want to find themselves in a similar position when they face the Dodgers at the end of 2025. It won't just be Sasaki that could push them over, as also there to lend their nudging power will be Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and, honestly, too many stars to count.

Mind you, caution and despair are not the same thing. Mariners fans should have some of the former but none of the latter, as it is not merely the odds that bode well for 2025. Fans know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Seattle's pitching staff can hang with anyone's. And also that, after a trying year in 2024, the only way to go for Julio Rodríguez and the offense is up.

When Sasaki and the Dodgers come to town in September, the Mariners will hopefully be ready for a good fight.