LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman sat down with Roki Sasaki in September and laid it out: he had missed a good amount of time with his right shoulder impingement . The starting rotation was in the best spot it had been all season as he was progressing towards a return. Friedman told Sasaki the pathway for him to play in October would probably be out of the bullpen , something that the 23-year-old had never done before.

“If you don't want to do it, we understand. There's risk in it,” Friedman remembers telling Sasaki. “But if you want to, we think there's a real pathway for you to help us win a championship.”

Friedman didn’t want an answer at that moment, and told Sasaki to think about it. The next day, Sasaki called him back and said, “I’m in.”

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