Shohei Ohtani pitched off a mound for the first time this spring today, as noted by Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. The bullpen session consisted of 14 throws, all of which were fastballs. Ohtani’s velocity sat 92-94 mph, which is well below his usual mid-90s velocity but not surprising for a pitcher who is still several months away from pitching in a big league game.
The news that Ohtani has resumed throwing and that he largely looked good doing so is surely heartening for Dodgers fans, but his timeline for a return to the mound remains unchanged. The club’s plan appears to be for Ohtani to join the club’s rotation at some point in May, with a five-man rotation set to be used by the Dodgers until then. As relayed by Ardaya, manager Dave Roberts indicated that Ohtani could resume facing live hitters before the club flies out to Tokyo for an early start to the regular season against the Cubs next month.
While the early returns of Ohtani’s rehab process are encouraging, plenty of questions remain between now and Ohtani’s first official pitching appearance in a Dodgers uniform. Ohtani’s rehab process as a pitcher will have to be balanced against his duties as the Dodgers’ everyday DH, creating a unique conundrum for the Dodgers to try and work through. The Angels dealt with a similar problem when Ohtani attempted to resume pitching in 2020 following Tommy John surgery, and that ended disastrously as he recorded just five outs and turned in his only below-average season as a big league hitter.
That said, it appears the Dodgers aren’t likely to send Ohtani on a rehab assignment before he makes his return to pitching. While rehab assignments are customary for pitchers coming off major surgeries, Ardaya notes that the club has had success returning Clayton Kershaw to the big league mound without a rehab assignment in the past after lengthy stays on the injured list, and he relays that pitching coach Mark Prior emphasized that rehabbing and hitting at the same time “seemed to turn out pretty well” for the reigning NL MVP last year. As an alternative to a rehab assignment, the plan seems to be for the Dodgers to hold simulated games for Ohtani before the Dodgers’ regularly scheduled game for that day begins, allowing him to face live hitters in the form of either players from the big league bench or minor league hitters.
Ohtani and the Dodgers will be looking to strike this balance all while Ohtani looks to put offseason surgery behind him. Ohtani was injured sliding into second base during Game Two of the World Series last year and ultimately ended up going under the knife to repair a torn labrum after dislocating his shoulder on that aforementioned slide. Former Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger famously struggled to return to form as a hitter after a similar injury, and Ardaya notes Ohtani has admitted that even as camp opens up he’s still dealing with a somewhat limited range of motion in his shoulder. Still, there’s a month left until the Dodgers begin the regular season in Tokyo, so Ohtani still has plenty of time to get his swing into a good place even as he balances that with rehabbing as a pitcher.
Ohtani wasn’t the only player in Dodgers camp to receive a notable injury update today. as noted by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, veteran first baseman Freddie Freeman told reporters he was “almost a full player” at this point in his rehab process after undergoing offseason ankle surgery. Freeman has resumed doing everything but running at this point, and while he’s not expected to be ready for the start of Spring Training games later this month Freeman emphasized that he remains on track to start the season in the lineup for the Dodgers in Japan.
Why do so many people act as though the Dodger’s owners inherited or were gifted this “superteam” that they currently run and own.
People seem to forget that 13+ years ago, this Dodgers franchise was a drifting, moribund franchise rife with infighting, daily drama, disappointing performances and instability.
Under the McCourt ownership the Dodgers were a floundering ship with no port or destination in mind. The best thing that ever happened to these Dodgers was for Frank McCourt to sell the team.
Despite what you may think of the Guggenheim players personally, you’d have to acknowledge that they’ve worked really hard, done an exemplary job and restored this great franchise back to it’s former glory and beyond.
Longtime Dodgers fans will remember those days of the Frank McCourt years and know that these days of plenty they’ve never had it so good.
The McCourt years were awful. It was an embarrassing time, and I appreciated that Guggenheim came in and immediately spent, starting with the A-Gon trade.
Since then the Dodgers have had success beyond everything I’ve ever seen as a Dodger fan. I’d never seen a Dodger team win 100 games, and now it’s a mild shock to *only* win 98. I’d never seen a Dodger team go to the postseason three years in a row (no one had, it had never happened before) and now it’s 13 years and counting.
The Dodgers had awful, neglectful ownership from 1998-2012. The FOX ownership was arguably worse than McCourt. They spent, but stupidly and on the wrong players (Kevin Brown). I think most of the haters are just jealous. The Mets spend, but no one cares because no one take them seriously
No one says they were gifted or inherited anything.
They bought it.
That they bought it more effectively than others do now or than they used to doesn’t change the fact that they bought it.
@66 – Say all you want about the Dodgers “buying” their success (there is some truth to that), but you have to give the front office major credit for their amateur drafting and international free agent success. They always pick in the high 20’s or in the low to mid 30’s in the draft, but they hit on way more players than they miss on and they are able to use their young talent either as replacements for aging stars (Will Smith, Lux, May, Outman, etc) or use them as trade assets to acquire star players like Mookie Betts, Tyler Glasnow, etc. If they didn’t draft so well, there’s no chance they acquire these players who once they get there, do not want to leave. Sure, they may produce the most revenue out of all MLB teams, but they are also the best run organization, top to bottom. It pains me to say that as a Red Sox fan but it is the truth.
My screeds are not directed at the Dodgers themselves.
They are directed at…
MLB for allowing the system.
Dodgers’ fans for pretending they won those trophies their mom bought them.
But why blame the fans, you ask?
As long as big market fans are willing to pretend and live a happy lie, MLB will never reach the tipping it’s need to make change and instead the frog will just keep boiling.
I don’t mind if people are upset by
I understand why fans of small city teams dislike the Dodgers spending but don’t give the Mets and Yankees a free pass just because they lost.
The systemic change is to get cheap owners to spend more commensurate with profits and increases in equity.
The only other systemic change is maybe with foreign players to have a one round draft with fixed salaries but that is unlikely to make it through collective bargaining. The system works pretty well for an entertaining game. Cohen started the high spending, not Guggenheim.
MLB 100, since Mark Walter’s group bought the team in 2013, the Dodgers have outspent the 2nd highest spending team by over half a billion. In that time frame they have outspent the Mets by $870 million. They have outspent the Giants and Padres by over $1 billion.
The system does work pretty well in terms of increasing revenue and equity for a small group of billionaires. In terms of making baseball exciting for the fans of the majority of small market teams on a consistent basis it has failed epically.
How would the Dodgers not spending as much have helped the small market teams?
The Dodgers spending less wouldn’t have helped them as much as you think, it would just make other teams that are also willing to spend IE Yankees, Mets, Phillies, etc… more relevant than they currently are. Take for example the 1998-2012 seasons where the Dodgers were a hot mess… how many small market teams won the WS?
In the NHL (with the hardest cap in sports) the gap between the biggest spending team and lowest spending team is about $20 million.
A hard cap levels the playing field for ALL teams.
I don’t dislike the dodgers as much as I do the fans. Before talking all this smack, maybe they should look in the mirror and realize what you said, it wasn’t long ago that They were in the same situation. I have no problem with the long time fans, but there’s plenty of modern fans that weren’t around then.
Every team has them, the more recent bandwagon fans, similar to when the Red Sox finally won again in the early 2000s. It was like a thing to be a fan of the team and there were plenty of Jack a**** there too.
Smack talk is fun, but recent fans of the dodgers success are taking it to a whole new level. Especially when you know, 90% of them were not fans during the tough times
I think the smack talk for any champion is tolerable until the next season starts. No one had any problem for years calling the Dodgers and Kershaw regular season stars and post-season chokers. Now they finally win one – remember so many people told them the COVID year “didn’t count” and now people are all uptight that the “chokers” won one. Let’s see them do it again before saying we have to break the team up because it is too good. The Yankees and Mets were also big spending teams, but posters are seemingly giving them a pass because they were “lovable losers”.
Dead on!
And us Angels fan are living the Frank McCourt years with Artie.
I can also famously report that Dustin May says he’s in a good place and expects to compete for the rotation.
Any world on Grimace and the Hamburglar?
He’ll be on the 60 day DL by May (No punt intended)
“May says he’s in a good place”..Maybe now Dustin will give us the real story of the “lettuce” incident with his wife.
I wonder how many versions of the story Dustin and his wife discarded and rejected before they settled on the “lettuce tore thru my throat” version?
How’s the weather on Mars?
Ohtani: 1. AM impressed at his velocity already just throwing for the first time after surgery.
2. NOT impressed he was only able to throw a measly 14 pitches. Sounds like he has aways to go. Shohei ain’t no spring chicken anymore and he may not be bouncing back to his old self right off the bat and on schedule…with either his pitching OR his hitting.
3. It would be curious to know if he further damaged his shoulder and exacerbated the tearing of his labrum by insisting that he play those final World Series at-bats where he looked so awkward and awful at the plate after dislocating his shoulder. He certainly did himself no favors by not sitting out the remainder of the World Series. [Complete Speculation: what if the Dodgers MADE HIM, FORCED HIM to play out the remainder of the WS despite his severe injury??? Lot riding on those games, in LA and Japan…just sayin].
Yer gunna pull a muscle with all those mental gymnastics, Iggy.
“How you feel, Sho?”
“Good to go, Coach.”
That’s how that went down, bar none.
What part of this makes sense to you?
Part of the price we pay for free speech such as it is in America gives license to this guy.
In Iggy’s defense, they got some bomb bud in the PNW (he’s a Mariner guy)
Given the weather in Seattle and the Mariners performance of late the bomb bud is in a good place I guess. Maybe get some for your guy Tow.
Shots fired! Lol
who cares???
> enjoys baseball, even Offseason
> signs in to MLBTR
> selects and reads article
> gets to comments
> writes “who cares???”
> genius
> enjoys baseball, even Offseason
> signs in to MLBTR
> selects and reads article
> gets to comments
> writes “who cares???”
>????
>profit
> genius
Apparently you do, coach
After two TJs I would imagine his reinjury risk is higher than after one. If I were a Dodger fan I probably wouldn’t want to see him pitching a lot.
Can’t wait.
“Jusss… take it easy, mang…”
~ Tony Montana
No reason to rush, and you’ll want to baby his innings/pitch counts… but I can’t wait either. Love watching Shohei on the bump. Cheers J(ackson)M(errill) & Sal
There was an article on MLB back in August of 2023 that covered the performance of pitchers that have had 2 TJ surgeries. Only Nathan Eovaldi, Chris Capuano, and Jameson Taillon had returned to have a season with greater than 20 starts and an ERA under 4.00 in their first two seasons back. One more, Cole Ragans did it in his 3rd season back.
Since that article was published, 3 more have returned to pitching including former Dodger Walker Buehler. None of them have achieved those benchmarks yet.
3 more will return this season. Ohtani, Shane McClanahan, and Dustin May. deGrom will have his 1st full season back after coming back at the end of 2024 to have 3 “openers”..
Jon Roegele’s database of Tommy John and other UCL procedures lists 56 SP that have had TJ or a UCL procedure twice and returned to being SP.
Left, those numbers are not very encouraging. 4 of 56 have come back from two TJ or UCL surgeries to be above average starters within 3 years of returning. A 7% success rate.
That was just the ones that were starting pitchers before the 2nd surgery and returned as starting pitchers? Were there others on the list that were starting pitchers before, that returned to be relievers? What was their success rate? How many had say 40 appearances out of the pen with a 4.00 ERA or better?
I guess that would be interesting research to do.
James Midway
The Dodgers are in a position to be truly amazing without risking an Ohtani injury from him pitching or even stealing too many bases. That is true. So from a pure perspective of winning the division and trying to win the WS again you are absolutely right.
But from a perspective of fan excitement around the globe, millions want to see the first season with 40 homers, 40 steals, 10 wins, and 100 strikeouts as a pitcher. It’s good to increase the global appeal of the sport.
Respectfully MLB Top I think we will not see Shohei steal 40 bags while he is also pitching once a week. Too dangerous. But whatever he does produce will doubtless be otherworldly.
I think the Dodgers might prefer Ohtani to run less, pitching or not. But my point is if he keeps doing it, it holds additional huge global fan appeal. With the hitters behind him, the mere threat of an occasional steal is enough to help.
It’s baseball, so anything can happen in the post-season, but this is going to be a truly spectacular regular season team in 2025.
Ohtani will never again steal more than 26 bags. Dodgers may not want him to make even that many attempts again if he is able to pitch.
outinleft
Sure he will. The season after he stops pitching–and that day is coming–he’ll steal more than 26 bags. Why wouldn’t he?
As a baseball fan I want to see him pitching. What he did was unprecedented. I want to see if he can come back and do both again.
Tim Cates was saying the typical time frame is 90-120 days from 1st time throwing off the mound to appearing in games. He was saying that pitchers head to a rehab stint in the minors after that 90-120 days, but the Dodgers are saying no rehab assignment for Ohtani.
That puts a more realistic time frame for his return to the Dodgers rotation as early to mid-June.
He’s already thrown bullpen sessions at the tail end of last season.
He just threw for the 1st time off the mound today.
“Roberts said it’s “very feasible” Ohtani, who threw a handful of bullpens last season before shutting it down for the Dodgers’ postseason run, could face hitters for the first time post-surgery before the Dodgers open the season against the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo next month.”
lefty- 1st time “this Spring”
Ohtani has not done any offseason throwing like other pitchers. I think Tim Cates, who is on the Dodgers radio station, is right about that time frame.
Pitchers in other spring training camps are already facing live hitters 2-3 days after arriving with their season openers 6 weeks away. That Ohtani won’t until March 16th at the earliest, and that is what it’s feasible means, and will miss all of the spring training games to build up his strength and endurance also points to Cates time frame being accurate.
Late May is a possibility. I think the Dodgers will take it easy and shoot for easing him into the rotation in June.
He’ll forever be known as a World Series choker.
Princess Yucki
You are referring to World Champion Shohei Ohtani? How’s your team doing?
Only by people that don’t understand baseball and how serious a shoulder injury is.
Only to you, princess.
He’s no Aaron Judge.
You mean the guy who struck out 7 times in 18 ABs and dropped that ball in CF in the final WS game? That Aaron Judge?
Do you not get sarcasm?
Artfully crafted.
wasn’t he hurt in like game 2?
Shohei was, yes. Tore up his shoulder sliding in game 2.
Yuki
The guy who will be forever known as the most prominent choker is Trevor Bauer, even if it was consensual, as the only one to get his rocks off by choking.
Someone put some learnin’ on me in yesterday’s Dodgers thread that MLB changed the rule so that Ohtani still qualifies as a two way player even though he didn’t pitch past year! If you haters want to complain about the league favoring the Dodgers, that’s the first legit thing I think.
in a way it makes sense. The guys started 23, 26, 23 games the last three seasons before his injury. If a player that only pitches is out for a whole season he is not required to establish himself a qualifying pitcher again.
92-94 is “well below” his mid 90s average. Uhh, ok.
B-Strong
I thought the same thing. Even is his usual average is say 96 mph, 92-94 seems like a nice start.
He threw 14 pitches, all fastballs, in his first pen. Long way to ramp up yet. Doubtful velocity will be an issue two months from now.
I would love to see Ohtani pitch this season but it’s not like the Dodgers don’t have a ton of pitching and if he didn’t come back until July it just gives him more time to rehab. The last thing any baseball fan wants to see is him hurry back and suffer another injury. I’m not a Dodger fan but I am a baseball fan.
They won’t rush it.
Let me guess, irony isn’t your strong suit?
Shohei Ohtani. Coming to a mound near you after the ASB.
As long as Ohtani doesn’t allow his interpreter fall guy’s regrettable fate weigh on his conscience, he should be able to fully focus on his pitching progress.
delusional | dəˈlo͞oZH(ə)nəl |
adjective
characterized by or holding false beliefs or judgments about external reality that are held despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, as a symptom of serious mental illness.
I will like to see games played by 2 starters and 1 reliever if needed, with 2 of the 6 spots starting may. With the combo of Sasaki and Gonsoline, and Snell and May. This way we can have the bullpen rested and stretch the SP and have them all ready.
probably crush your team Mickey.
If Ohtani pulls a Bellinger at the plate and falls into the abyss, he’s still the league’s biggest bargain at $2m per season.
Delusional thinking seems to be contagious.