Los Angeles Dodgers rookie Roki Sasaki is inching closer to appearing in a Major League spring training game.

Sasaki has already thrown a pair of bullpen sessions, going about 30 pitches in his second one at the indoor batting cages at Camelback Ranch, the Dodgers' spring home.

“We threw him in a cage and got some technology on him, just to kind of get a baseline for him,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said, per MLB.com's Jack Magruder. “It's something that we do with all of our pitchers, all the way through, up and down through the organization.”

The next step will be getting Sasaki into a spring training game, expected to come on Tuesday against the Chicago White Sox. That will be what Prior called a “hybrid-b” game with minor league camps not open yet. Los Angeles will also play a regular Cactus League game against the Seattle Mariners that day, with fellow newcomer Blake Snell getting the start.

“These first couple weeks [are] really both of us trying to get to know each other and then try[ing] to progress from there,” Prior said of Sasaki. “Get him dialed in with some things that he wants to work on.”

Sasaki is still tracking to pitch the second game of the season-opening Tokyo Series against the Chicago Cubs on March 19.

Dodgers' 2-way star Shohei Ohtani will also play in a game this week

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) works on his form during a spring training bullpen session at Camelback Ranch.
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Reigning National League MVP Shohei Ohtani will see his first action in the Cactus League this week, though manager Dave Roberts didn't say which day. We do know that, while Ohtani is gearing up for a return to the mound, his first appearance will be at DH.

Ohtani saw 32 pitches (18 swings) against Minor League pitcher Nicolas Cruz on Sunday, marking the first time he has faced live pitching since his shoulder surgery in November. He's coming off the first 50 home run, 50 stolen base season in Major League history.

“Shohei looked good,” Roberts said, per Magruder. “He got a lot of swings off. He said he felt good afterward, he hit a couple of balls hard, which is good to see. I’m excited that he got to face some pitchers. We are still on track for [the] end of next week that he will be in a game DHing.”

Ohtani is on track to return to the mound sometime in May, with Roberts saying earlier this month that it “might be earlier.”