The Dodgers have been taking things slowly with superstar Shohei Ohtani as he prepares for his return to pitching. After just over a month off from regular bullpen sessions, Ohtani resumed throwing last weekend and threw another bullpen session earlier today. As noted by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, Ohtani threw 26 pitches, and for the first time this year he included his splitter in the bullpen session. This came after what Plunkett described as a “light” bullpen session on Thursday. While that’s a noticeable ramp-up in activity, it shouldn’t be mistaken for the Dodgers accelerating Ohtani’s timeline back to the big league mound.
According to Plunkett, manager Dave Roberts indicated that the club hopes to replicate something akin to the schedule Ohtani will have when he returns to the big league mound as a starter by having him throw off the mound twice a week: once with a lighter bullpen session on Thursday followed by a full session on Saturday. Despite the superstar now getting back on the mound somewhat regularly, Plunkett notes that there’s still a long way to go before he’ll be ready to pitch in a big league game for the Dodgers. He relays that, per Roberts, the next step for Ohtani would be to incorporate his entire arsenal into his bullpen sessions rather than exclusively fastballs and an occasional splitter.
It won’t be until Ohtani is using his full arsenal that facing live hitters in simulated games, which the Dodgers plan to use in lieu of a rehab assignment to get Ohtani up to game speed while still allowing him to continue serving as their everyday DH in the lineup, is on the table. He’ll surely need several of those outings before he’s ready to get into games, and Plunkett suggests that at this point a realistic timeline for Ohtani’s pitching debut with the Dodgers would be sometime in June “at the earliest.” In the meantime, the Dodgers are utilizing a rotation of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki, and Dustin May. Both Clayton Kershaw and Tony Gonsolin could also return from the injured list before Ohtani is ready to pitch, giving the Dodgers a host of potential options for the rotation.
More from around the NL West…
- Rockies southpaw Austin Gomber began the season on the injured list due to soreness in his left shoulder, and while he was sent out for a rehab assignment just after Opening Day with an eye towards returning after just the first couple of weeks of the season, he was scratched from his next rehab start due to shoulder inflammation. That paved the way for Colorado to promote Chase Dollander to the big leagues, and Thomas Harding of MLB.com spoke to Gomber in more detail about the situation today. According to Harding, Gomber wasn’t able to pitch at maximum effectiveness during his rehab start even after receiving an anti-inflammatory injection in his shoulder. As a result, Gomber noted that the plan now is for him to have a slower and “more traditional” rehab process. He won’t throw for another week while the inflammation calms down, and will likely not return to the mound for another two or three weeks after that.
- While the Giants initially planned to use young right-hander Hayden Birdsong as a long reliever and piggyback starter after he lost out on the fifth starter job to Landen Roupp, it appears that may no longer be in the cards. As noted by Justice delos Santos of Mercury News, manager Bob Melvin told reporters today that the club is now treating Birdsong as a “true reliever” after his limited usage to begin the season. Birdsong has appeared just once in the Giants’ first week of games, making a two-inning appearance that saw him throw just 27 pitches. With Birdsong no longer stretched out as a starter for the time being, Melvin suggested that a one-inning appearance for the righty could be on the table. Birdsong pitched exclusively as a starter in the majors last year, with a 4.75 ERA in 16 starts, and hadn’t made a relief appearance in the major or minor leagues at the Double-A level or higher at any point in his career prior to his 2025 debut.
In other news, yesterday ex Rockies pitcher who also LA native, Peter Lambert, just throwing 6 scoreless innings in his NPB debut for the Yakult Swallows
Every once in a while I read about these epic rehabs where I think to myself “what a career to get- you’re so valuable when you are healthy, that an employer wants to pay you tens of millions of dollars to not play, so that you will be less likely to get another injury by laying off the sport for an extra long time.”
I am waiting for that future contract where it’s like a deGrom/Ohtani, etc. level potential talent and the team goes “we have signed Joe Schmoe to 16 years/$1.32B. Now, in order to actually get a return on this investment, our medical team has advised us to never ever play or train this player. But trust us; if he could play and be safe from injury, he’d be amazing. Imagine Peak Babe Ruth, Cliff Lee, etc.” all rolled into one player- can you imagine it? Trust us, Joe Schmoe is totally on that level- *but* if we ever let him just play the game so you could see that, he might get injured, which would be a waste of our investment, so he’s just not gonna play- but trust us when we tell you how amazing he is if w’d take the risk of him putting any wear and tear on his body.”
Quite the amount of words to describe something that will never happen.
It took that many words to eliminate the possibility.
TrillionWordOperator
Interesting development with Birdsong now described as a true reliever. I envisioned him as the next guy up when the inevitable injury to someone in the rotation happened. But so far Birdsong appears to be a legitimate weapon out of the ‘pen. Small sample. of course, but so far he’s been dominant. Way too early take is making him a true reliever seems to make sense.
Had to define it for him maybe. Better option than having him in limbo. He looks solid. Nice problem.
Just nice having the young starter depth to be able to have this option. The Carsons down on the farm are looking good. Team looks great and future looks bright. Wonder what the naysayers have to squak about now ? Silence is golden.
Ragsdale was lit up today. So far it appears Whisenhunt isthe only solid starter. Keep eye on Choate. Btw, where’s our pal Frugal. I’d like his take on Flores being toast. And Yaz as well. Check all big rocks.
Ya forgot about Carson Seymour.
He’s killing it !
“Blow up this team” he said.
Delusional.
claude, IMO Whisenhunt isn’t the only solid starter. Harrison has had 2 good starts at AAA, and though Beck is more of a hybrid, he’s capable of starting games. He was starter in college, and had 60 GS in the MiLs.
I think “Birdsong the reliever” is only temporary this year, he’s just too good not to eventually be in the rotation. Giants are stacked with arms—at both the Major League level and in the minors.
Maybe. But as you say they’re stacked with arms. And if Birdsong proves to be more effective than Harrison, Whisenhunt, Beck, etc. coming out of the ‘pen, and they’re better in the starting role, he might be the better, more lethal weapon as a reliever.
Maybe he’s the next Yusmeiro Petit. Did long relief and started. 1 out short of a perfect game.
Until Ohtani pitches he’s just your typical DH, except insanely overrated and overpaid.
The kitchen is that way sweetie!
Awe. You’re showing them where you belong Darren. How nice of you.
In the hall of fame?
“Until Ohtani pitches..insanely overrated and overpaid”..Vlad Guerrero Jr. is one dimensional, extremely inconsistent, not particularly athletic, portly and “overpaid”.
Ohtani is a practically unheard of two way baseball player, is very fast, consistent, athletic and versatile; and by today’s MLB standards very much underpaid.
I believe the preferred term is ‘husky boy’. It’s just a small effort for all of us to be more kind and welcoming.
Of course, your highness, of course.
Please don’t feed the trolls.
Jealousy is a cruel mistress, eh Yucki?
I see PYuki has me muted. My poor trembling heart. How will I live without PYuki’s love?
50/50 is never overrated or overpaid.
Is it possible to have your BABIP decline while your BA increases (or vice versa) or do both BABIP & BA have to trend in the same direction (as if they are coupled together) ?
A hitter’s BA could rise even if their BABIP fell if their strikeout rate improved enough.
Or the hitter hit a bunch of homers.
@Ignorant Son-of-a-b
Yep, your BABIP can drop while your BA goes up—or the other way around. They don’t always move together. If you strike out less and hit more homers, your BA rises because you’re getting hits, but BABIP might fall since homers don’t count as balls in play. Flip it—more strikeouts, fewer homers—and BABIP can climb while BA tanks. It’s all about how you get your hits, not just how many.
BABIP is about how lucky a hitter has been. A much higher BABIP over BA indicates a large amount of luck.
Dodgers are just working on finding the optimal amount of pitches for Ohtani to throw between rests and still maximize his bat. My guess is he won’t pitch till June or July.
Ohtani threw his first bullpen session on MAR 29th. They are working him back from injury, nothing grander here as you yearn for in an attempt to sound intelligent and adding something of value.
How about just commenting on what’s actually relevant after reading the articles for a change. Your attempts at pirating the comment session have been an exercise in futility.
Your tacky use of AI has been equally as bad with your inability to narrow parameters toa scope relevant to the information provided in articles you don’t read…
@Tigers3232
You frame Ohtani’s March 29 bullpen as a simple injury recovery, dismissing my take as overreach, but you’re blind to the optimization game hiding in plain sight. Fact: the article states Ohtani threw 26 pitches today (April 5), adding his splitter, after a ‘light’ session Thursday—per Roberts, a deliberate twice-weekly ramp-up mimicking his starter rhythm. This isn’t just rehab; it’s a calibration of pitch volume (fastballs, splitters, soon full arsenal) against rest intervals to preserve his DH output (.300+ career BA as hitter). My June/July timeline aligns with Plunkett’s ‘earliest’ projection—live hitters and simulated games (no rehab assignment) need weeks post-full-arsenal bullpens, which haven’t started. You call it irrelevant; I call it physics: balancing pitch counts (26 now, 80-100 as starter) with bat potency is the Dodgers’ unstated edge, dodging rotation bloat (Yamamoto, Snell, Glasnow, Sasaki, May, Kershaw, Gonsolin). Your ‘read the article’ jab flops—I did, and saw what you didn’t: a dual-role experiment no one’s quantifying
You and your AI responses are pathetic. The guy is working his arm back from having a major surgery to partake in the violent arm motion of pitching.
If Ohtani was doing anything that was relevant to the teams planning, that information would bot be made public. Any information given is the status quo for a player and their progress through recovery. There is no larger ploy at play here and if there was that information would bot be made public.
You seriously lack common sense as well as the ability to critically think.
More AI written schlop, I see?
Let’s be real and end this fantasy now…He’s never pitching again. This is all a smoke screen. It’s more beneficial to the dodgers to have him in the lineup at DH (or learn to play the OF) than risk losing him for a year plus due to surgery
I couldn’t disagree more. Some in MLB believe he’s a better pitcher than hitter. Ohtani is incredibly valuable DHing and pitching. Way more than as a DH alone. The Dodgers would be foolish to not maximize that value. Injury is a risk for every guy in MLB. But the risk/reward equation suggests it’s worth it having him do both.
“Some in mlb think he’s a better pitcher than hitter” what in his career so far has proven that?! Has he ever won a cy young? The answer is no.
Also, I know you live in this fantasy world where you think he’s just gonna be able to get on a mound after 2 years and pitch effectively…but that’s not the case. He’ll need to get something called REHAB STARTS. How are the dodgers going to do that when he’s in the lineup
Everyday. I know I’m
Ruining your video game like fantasy by telling you the harsh truth of this but it’s the reality.
No need to get mad. Simply stating my opinion.
I never said I thought he was better pitcher than hitter. I said some say that because I heard people say that on MLB TV.
The main point I was making was that Ohtani isn’t worth his contract if he doesn’t pitch. Of course it will be difficult since he can’t make rehab starts. I think everyone is aware of that fact, so that’s not a news flash you’re making.
Why do you think Ohtani is working out as a pitcher? Just for fun? The Dodgers have him throwing off a mound now. They need him to pitch, and they will figure it out. If you think Ohtani will be a DH only for the rest of his career, then the fantasy world is the one you’re living in.
As a Halo fan I am excited to see Shotime pitch again. Dodger fans and the MLB will see what I have said for a long time…he is a better pitcher than a hitter. When he does both again he will dominate both sides of the plate. I miss him but am happy to see him having fun and winning like he deserves. Go get em! No rush….
Gs are looking good. Mostly the Heart is the early headline, of course the pitching both starters and bullpen for sure. It’s the heart they showed in the home opener, Wow ! Keep it going.