Yoshinobu Yamamoto will return to the Dodgers’ rotation on Tuesday. Manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Alden González of ESPN) that the right-hander will get the start for the second game of next week’s set with the Cubs. Yamamoto is on the 60-day injured list and will need to be reinstated onto the 40-man roster.
It’ll likely be a brief appearance. Yamamoto last pitched in the majors on June 15. A rotator cuff strain knocked him out of action for more than two months. The 26-year-old joined Triple-A Oklahoma City on a rehab stint last week. He only pitched there twice, topping out at two innings. He labored through 53 pitches last night, and while his results weren’t good, he built up enough that the Dodgers don’t feel he needs another rehab appearance.
The Dodgers will presumably limit Yamamoto to somewhere in the 60-75 pitch range next week. L.A. has a decent 5.5-game cushion on the Padres in the NL West. They’re a game up on the Phillies for the top seed in the National League and three clear of the Brewers for a first-round bye. They’re still playing meaningful regular season games, but the primary focus is again on October.
Yamamoto should be able to log four turns through the rotation before the regular season concludes. That’d be ample time to build to a typical starter’s pitch count going into the postseason. If his stuff returns to pre-injury levels, he could be Roberts’ choice to start the first game of a playoff series. Yamamoto’s first MLB start was a nightmare, as he allowed four hits and five runs and didn’t make it to the second inning. The former NPB star has been as advertised since then. In the 13 starts since his debut, he sports a 2.34 earned run average with a 28.1% strikeout rate through 73 innings.
While it’s too soon to make definitive judgments about the Dodgers’ $325MM investment, Yamamoto was pitching like the top-of-the-rotation arm that L.A. expected. He’s part of an extremely high-variance rotation. Jack Flaherty and Gavin Stone are leading the group at the moment. Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw are on the IL. The Dodgers seem hopeful that both Glasnow and Kershaw will be back with a couple weeks to spare. If they get each of Yamamoto, Glasnow, Flaherty, Stone and Kershaw firing on all cylinders, they’ll go into the playoffs with an excellent rotation. That’s a big ask with the health uncertainty surrounding most of that group.
Kershaw went on the IL over the weekend with a bone spur in his left big toe. The Dodgers will turn to rookie righty Landon Knack in his place for Friday’s series opener with the Guardians, Roberts said (via Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register). Knack has been on and off the MLB roster as an injury replacement throughout the season. He has performed well when called upon, working to an even 3.00 ERA over 48 innings.
Imagine if a big league player named Mario or Luigi homers off yoshi
MLB needs a Japanese player named “Nintendo”, or maybe just one with the initials “NES”.
Ohtani already has 40+/40+ and will likely reach 50+/50+ yet hardly a word about it from any media anywhere. Only the most fanatical fans have any clue at all about it. Most fans have no clue at all and probably think hes around 15/15 instead of 40+/40+ Most underrated player in the game today and likely the most overlooked, underrated, and unknown “baseball” players of all time for that matter. PS he might break the all time single season WAR record this season not that anyone would actually know about that. Unbelievable.
so you have interviewed “most fans” on this topic? care to share your research?
Ask anybody. Im in alot of hardcore baseball fan circles and nobody knows- everyone is shocked
obv those are true hardcore fans
Most unknown player in the history of baseball
ok we’re done here
You going somewhere?
yeah blue I have a game to watch
Your welcome for breaking the all time single season WAR record
You can make an argument that Francisco Lindor or Elly De La Cruz are more impactful than pure DHs like Ohtani and Ozuna. But Ohtani will be the MVP. So, I think it is hard to say that it’s a quiet secret. By the way, Skenes will top Jackson Merrill for rookie of the year. It’s a marketing thing.
You could even argue that Shota Imanaga should be ahead of Skenes. 12-3, 2.99 ERA.
I would go Merrill then Skenes than Imanaga, but it is very close. Skenes has not been up for a full season.
I would go Ohtani, Lindor, Ozuna and De La Cruz.
“Your welcome for breaking the all time single season WAR record”
Clearly you are not talking about Ohtani because his best season (9.9 in 2023) is tied for 180th-best season ever. If you want the modern, live-ball record it’s the good Doctor in 1985 (13.3). Ohtani’s old teammate Trout even has two seasons better than Ohtani’s best.
Maybe the single season NL DH WAR record?
Era and wins are the 2 most irrelevant statistics. It’s like predicting it’s going to be 75 degrees tomorrow because in 1987 it was as well.
“Care to share your research”…I watch MLB Network regularly and they were talking about Ohtani’s 50/50 chances for about 2 hours on “MLB Tonight” in the last 2 days. I’m really not seeing this Ohtani news blackout the other poster is referring to.
hi mlb fan
if you read the other posts from him you’ll see it was a long winded troll. just stirring the pot with ludicrous blather
Outside of playoff teams no one in this country cares about baseball any more. It’s a game of the past and the MLB does a horrendous job marketing its game and its players
Lol. This genius^ has the answers on how MLB can magically make baseball more popular
Obviously Thefrogsaregey can’t read. Never claimed to have answers.
It’s hard to market players that aren’t winning
Trout and Ohtani have never won a playoff game
Harper’s team won a world series right after he left
Judge hasn’t been to the world series
Guerrero Jr. hasn’t won a playoff game
There’s only so much marketing you can do in the regular season.
lol filihok is a revolutionary commie om steroids!
It’s a timezone thing. All of this is happening while most of baseball sleeps. This week he stole three bases in one game. If anybody was performing this kind of feat in New York, the coverage would be wall to wall. I pointed this out just a few days ago, when this very site failed to mention that Ohtani had reached 40-40 faster than any player in the history of the game and his HR was a walk-off grand slam. Yawn?
Acuna went 40/40 last year and it wasn’t all that celebrated. It’s been done before and it ll happen more often in the future with new rules.
Now if Ohtani goes 50/50, I’m sure it ll start getting quite a bit of attention as it approaches.
And again, the feat was doing it faster than anyone has in the history of the game. And his 40th bag and 40th HR came in the same game. And the HR was a walk off slammer. But maybe it will get interesting at some point. We’ll see. But for now, kinda boring.
@BlueSkies I find it impressive. I personally value those SBs at maybe 30 in pre 2023 terms. But still the overall skillset of Ohtani on offense alone is crazy.
Added to his top of rotation arm and international marketing appeal, it’s truly a one of a kind thing. But overall him hitting 40/40 and Acuna doing so last year was hardly noteworthy as for as sports news here in Detroit. When I was a kid and Canseco was approaching 40/40 until he got there I remember being much bigger news. Media options were much more limited at that time though.
Chokeseco had the worst 40/40 season in the history of 40/40 seasons
You misspelled ‘first Suncloud. I’m by no means a Canseco fan, but he was first member of 40/40 club and always will be.
I do have to Canseco a bit of credit on his “Happy Pride Month” tweet to ARod at beginning of this June. As far as ARod I don’t think there’s much redemption below him to be had…
A-Rod is a jerk, but at least he isn’t as bad of a person as derek jeter. At least A-Rod didn’t knowingly spread std’s like wildfire while running through/sleeping with as many women as he possibly could- basically making a game out of it (jeter did). At least A-Rod didn’t scam and swindle an MLB organization and use it as a personal ATM machine (jeter did that to the Marlins). At least A-Rod didn’t act anything but ‘Captain’ like- despite being the team ‘Captain’ (jeter did). At least A-Rod didn’t put up the false facade of being a good person while actually being a bad person (jeter did), etc.
@Suncloud Much like you were completely off about Seager, again you re off here. Jeter actually left Marlins due to the teams lack of spending. He was not in control of finances there. Jeter has received nothing but raise publicly from former teammates.
As far as your completely stab on the dark assertion that he was knowingly spreading STDs, there are things called HIPPA Laws. Which I highly doubt you know Amy of Jeter’s personal medical details. So if the unvalidated rumors are true its safe to say you have no idea with any certainty.
And sorry but unless an athlete is beating a woman or having unconsensual sex, who I’m I to judge if they capitalize on the seemingly endless groupies throwing themselves at them. Do you think these women are out looking for love when they circle pro athletes??
Tigers, the story is when and how he got there. As a baseball story this is like first man on the moon. No way it gets such a shrug if it happens in Eastern Time.
Yeah, because most baseball fans really care about the all time WAR record based on a stat only around a few years considering the 150 year old history of baseball involving a mythical “replacement”.
Would have been easier to just say that you are an idiot
What do you mean no one is talking about it??? ESPN won’t stop making articles about 50/50!!!
I don’t go on or watch ESPN except for setting Fantasy lineups. Don’t know what content they have these days. They lost me when every article you had to pay for Insider or whatever their premium is.
You can read ESPN+ articles by turning off and on your WiFi there’s probably tutorials on that
It’s not worth the effort to me. CBS and plenty of other sports websites I now prefer.
Granted there is a HUGE east coast bias with ESPN. For the first time in ages they lead sports center with Ohtani not Judge.
If you think there is not a bias then look ant home many times the Yankees/Red Sox are on Sunday Night Baseball or how often the Dodgers get a home game on Sunday Night Baseball.
The entire world knows about Ohtani and just how ridiculous what he is doing on the field. Everyone enjoy this ride while it lasts. This is the player you will tell your great grandkids about and say I saw that man play.
Lastly. These words are coming from a die hard Angels fan.
The east coast bias is huge in general. I’ve lived on both coasts so I know firsthand that in the east a lot of sports happens after you’re asleep. It gets covered less in general, and that just makes it harder to care about. Most of what the world (or country) knows about Ohtani is the size of his contract. Even here it gets far more discussion than what he does on the field. The bad business with his translator stealing his money, that got masses more. Hundreds and hundreds of posts. Him going 40-40 faster than any player in history? Basically none.
I really have to disagree. Ohtani is not exactly a secret. Everyone knows what he can do. He signed the most lucrative deal in MLB history and has been followed pretty closely since his debut. I’ve read about murmurs of his HOF candidacy already and with the 50/50 season he’s making a case for himself every year. He makes a ton of money off endorsements. If you want to call him underrated that’s fine but a stretch,I just don’t see the overlooked and unknown part.
I hope Ohtani does the 50/50. If he goes back to pitching, this is probably his last chance, because pitching takes a lot out of you, whether or not you are a unicorn.
Chris, this is essentially a reduction to the absurd argument. Who said he was a “secret” or “overlooked” or “unknown” or even “underrated”? What I actually said is his accomplishments are underreported because he’s performing them in a part of the country where sports are generally underreported. You also inadvertently proved my point about what most people know about Ohtani and want to talk about when his name comes up. The money and other non-baseball stories about him is what gets the most media coverage and discussion, and it isn’t even close. All you need to do is read the comments here for the evidence. You can start with your own.
Come on man don’t you have anything better to do than troll. At least be interesting if you’re going to do it.
However I will concede that if you’re not a huge Dodgers fan then Ohtani has gotten to be a bit humdrum. “OH look, Shohei hit a homerun. Wow. OH look, Shohei stole another base (not so impressive, but okay.) Welp, there goes another one. How does he do it? Pass the peanuts please. Hmmm.” I wish he spoke more to the fans, he seems like a distance removed. Does the guy even have a nickname?
Yeah, maybe it is a little too soon to evaluate a ten year contract in its first year. Kind of makes you wonder why this needs to be said.
BSLA
“Kind of makes you wonder why this needs to be said.”
Have you not read through the comments here at MLBTR.
It certainly needs to be said to some people
Eh, no. Pandering is not required. It is done only out of habit.
BSLA
Pandering? Seems more like educating.
Down with the Rich!
Such remedial education should not be required on a baseball fan site, so I’ll go with pandering.
BSLA
Based on the needs of the users of the baseball fan site, I’ll go with education
Like if a student gets to fifth grade and can’t read yet, someone just needs to take the time to teach them to read.
Or, maybe, it’s just setting some basic expectations.
At the risk of this becoming a completely circular argument (too late?), pandering is giving people what they want. So I’m still seeing this as indulging those who called Yamamoto’s signing a huge mistake even before he set foot on a mound. I mean, just consider the use of the word definitive. This means it’s possible to have a useful opinion about the signing, just without complete authority. Not very educational, if you ask me.
The bit about Knack is interesting. If Yamamoto, Glasnow, Kershaw, and Graterol all make it back and need innings, it’s hard to see how Kelly gets activated again, Miller may be optioned, and/or maybe even Buehler DFAed. Numbers get tight.
Brogdon and Graterol also pitched in that game
Gonna be even tougher than usual to crack the roster in LA
Article originally noted that Landon Knack is out of options (and thus would have to be waived to be sent to the minors, which LA would never do), but per Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic, the Korea series did not count for regular season options and he’s still at 4. Think that got edited out. Good attention to detail by you guys and gals
Dang it, I was hoping this meant they are moving on from Kelly.
Well, Miller may get optioned in any event based on the first inning here.
high
Based on the next 4, he’ll stay
Based on his erratic performances he is a long shot to make the playoff roster.
I agree Bobby needs to be sent down or moved into the bullpen.
Here comes the money! All the big name players the Dodgers have bought all getting healthy at once. How sweet. A perfect ending to a Hollywood fairy tale. One that makes most mortals want to barf.