Japanese baseball star Roki Sasaki had a rollercoaster rookie season with the Dodgers in 2025. While Sasaki experienced the joy of winning the World Series with the LA-based team, he also had an injury-plagued season, which didn't allow him to perform the way he would have expected.However, Sasaki can now put the setbacks of 2025 behind him as the Dodgers seem prepared to entrust him with an important role for the 2026 season. MLB Network shared a video on X on Monday in which Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes defined the team's expectations for Sasaki next year.When Gomes was asked if the Dodgers plan to use Roki Sasaki as a starter next year, he said:"Absolutely. Yes."Further, Gomes also revealed that the decision to move Sasaki to a reliever's role in October was something that was needed at the time."I think it speaks of Roki as a competitor and you know the culture Doc and our veteran players have built... At that moment, that was Roki's position to help us win, and he fully embraced it and dominated. And now, to use that as a springboard to go out and be the dominant starter that we feel he can be," Gomes said.In the 2025 MLB regular season, Roki Sasaki amassed a record of 1-1. He had an ERA of 4.46 and managed to achieve 28 strikeouts with a WHIP of 1.43. It will be interesting to see how Sasaki performs when he returns to being a starter next season.Top Dodgers official also backed Roki Sasaki to be a starter in 2026Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes isn't the only top official who is backing Roki Sasaki to be a starter for the Dodgers in 2026. In November, a top Dodgers official had already backed the young Japanese to be a starter next season.The top Dodgers official in question is the president of baseball operations for the team, Andrew Friedman. In a statement via the Register, Friedman first explained why the Dodgers used Sasaki as a reliever and then mentioned the team is viewing him as a starter for 2026."I think for us, [using Sasaki as a reliever] was about trying to get his delivery back," Friedman said. I feel like we made a lot of progress on that. So for us, we’re definitely viewing him as a starter and a really good one, and we’ll continue to work this offseason and put him in the best position to be ready in Spring Training to help us win again.”If things go as planned for Roki Sasaki, he will be joining the likes of Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. There will also be many eyes on who replaces Sasaki as a reliever for the Dodgers next year.