Shohei Ohtani will hit a milestone this weekend in his return to pitching. He’s slated to throw live batting practice to teammates before Sunday night’s game at Citi Field (link via Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). It will be his first time throwing to hitters since his 2023 elbow surgery. Ohtani was initially expected to throw BP on Saturday, but the Dodgers pushed that back after last night’s 13-inning game — which also featured an early rain delay — went until 1:00 in the morning on the East Coast.
Ohtani has been throwing bullpen sessions for the past couple months. He got up to 50 pitches last weekend and has thrown his fastball in the mid-90s. Ardaya writes that Ohtani recently began to reintroduce his breaking stuff into those exercises. He’s still not expected to pitch in games until after the All-Star Break.
The Dodgers face a unique ramp-up process with the three-time MVP. He’s working back from his second major elbow operation. That’d have warranted caution even if he were just a pitcher. Every other pitcher would spend multiple weeks on a minor league rehab assignment before returning to an MLB mound. The Dodgers aren’t going to take Ohtani’s bat out of the big league lineup to do that. He required offseason surgery on his non-throwing shoulder after tearing his labrum on a slide during the World Series. They’ll also need to monitor his overall fatigue level as he builds his arm while continuing to hit every day. He has started 49 of their first 51 games at designated hitter.
That all produces a complicated rehab plan that has moved quite slowly. It has now been 20 months since Ohtani underwent the UCL repair that ended his Angels tenure. It hasn’t at all slowed his offensive dominance, of course. He has followed up last year’s unprecedented 50-50 season with a .302/.397/.643 line through 232 plate appearances. He leads the majors with 53 runs and is tied with Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwarber and Cal Raleigh for the league lead with 17 homers.
He will also throw batting practice at every real game he pitches as well
Sorry Dodgers fans, I’m a #Hater
“Sorry Dodger fans, I’m an idiot.
There fixed it for you.
I have a 147 IQ btw
You have to have an IQ over 110 to understand any of my comments… looks like you were too low!
Your comments speak for themselves.
Ippei how are you commenting from prison
I question the IQ of anyone who cites their IQ.
I take it your IQ is somewhere between a 98 and 102?
I haven’t had it tested since grade school, and I don’t feel the need to brag about it anonymously on the internet.
My name is Walter Hartwell White, I live at 308 Negra Arroyo Lane in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I’ve contributed to Nobel Prize-winning research on proton radiography and co-founded a multi-billion dollar company
Now will you continue to hide behind your screen and make baseless, pedantic criticisms, or will you put your money where your mouth is and tell us who YOU truly are, Mr. gbs IQ of 42?
Hey, Walter – or should I call you Heisenberg? How’s the meth empire? Also, aren’t you dead?
Guessing this will all be deferred?
so original.
But I didn’t eat breakfast this morning
Bivouac, are you Ohtani’s PR manager or something? Maybe you can tell me what he had for breakfast since you’re spending so much time defending him on the message board. Are you also the kind of fan that likes to spend other people’s money and talk about how they have more than you so shut up and all that kind of stuff?
Bivouac-Sal has to be one of the most respectable Dodgers fans out there, actually. He isn’t Ohtani’s PR manager as much as his haters are, but he’s a Dodgers fan who quite understandably is tired of the unwarranted hate the team’s been getting.
Hating a team because it’s trying to win is weird.
When MLB network does a highlight reel of the Dodgers games they show his ground outs for God’s sake. So the hate is caused by the incessant slurping of Ohtani, not delusional fans.
You can ignore those highlights instead of being a fan of Ohtani, you know?
Sounds like a reason to hate MLB Network, not the Dodgers.
Thanks Steinbrenner. (Never thought I would one day utter those words). 🙂
You’re a good guy. See you in October again I hope.
To you, because you’re an Ohtani fanboy.
Blah blah blah.
I’ve rooted for the Dodgers since I was a little kid. Now that they have the best team in baseball and the best player in the game it’s a reason to celebrate. I suggest you celebrate your team and your superstar. Why are you even on this board?
And what did you do to contribute to the team’s success??? Are you Casey Blake perchance???
Wtf are you talking about genius? I’m a fan, nothing more.
Sal, please don’t let FC believe anyone actually thinks he’s a genius.
Gbs
Slim chance of that for anyone who can read.
Are the Dodgers in trouble financially that they need Ohtani to pitch? He should stick to hitting 50+HRs/season with a ridiculous OPS, and maybe learn to play the outfield eventually.
Stupidity is rampant today.
It must be something in the water.
@Bivouac Cmon his statement didn’t deserve that insult. There is a reasonable school of thought that pitching does increase his risk of injury. But he wants to pitch, and that’s his decision.
@Brew
This alone warranted my retort:
“Are the Dodgers in trouble financially that they need Ohtani to pitch?”
As great a hitter as Ohtani is, he is a world class pitcher. Or at least he was before his latest surgery. It’s not about what he wants. It’s about what is best for the team. And that is utilizing all of Ohtani’s prodigious talents.
I won’t speak for anyone else, but I feel everyone who follows baseball should already know that Ohtani was never going to sign with a team that wasn’t going to allow him to be a two-way player. This is why he signed initially with the Angels. So, sure, pitching is a risk factor, but it’s a risk factor built into the player.
I think he was just being lightly facetious by that first sentence. But back to the point, losing him as a hitter when he suffers an arm or leg injury pitching or fielding has its risk. It’s a very valid discussion, no matter how world class and prodigious he may be. Dont know about LAD FO, but most fans I’m sure would rather see him pitch and hit.
Risk versus reward. Agreed.
My point is, this isn’t actually a valid discussion because it wouldn’t be any different no matter where he decided to play. Pitching is part of what he wants to do as a player. The risk can’t be eliminated, but it can be managed. We can see how the Dodgers have managed it so far. I believe that once he starts pitching they will continue to manage risk by keeping his innings and pitch counts low. WAG, he pitches maybe 40 innings in the regular season.
@Blue. I disagree in part. Bucsfan above merely stated his opinion. Essentially stating that the risk might not be warranted. None of us should call him out as stupid for that thought. And it’s certainly a reasonable topic for discussion. Personally I want to see him pitch. I also want to see Tatis play SS and steal bases. But I do agree these players who can do special things need to be carefully managed, and I’m sure the Dodgers will be careful with Ohtani as the Angels tried to be.
Point taken. I apologize.
No worries Biv!
It’s kind of like arguing that it’s a risk driving to work every day. It’s true, but only in theory, since you really don’t have a choice. All you can do is lower the risk by driving carefully. So no matter the risk of having Ohtani pitch, if you want Ohtani on your roster, you have to let him pitch. That part of the question answers itself.
I’m not arguing how LAD should manage Ohtani, I’m just defending one poster’s right to not be insulted for voicing an opinion on a not so unreasonable topic for discussion. The risk vs benefits on some players has been an interesting issue for discussion, examples lately: Acuna and Tatis and baserunning risks.
But to your point, as far as I know Ohtani isn’t being asked to not pitch and I haven’t seen a post here from anyone suggesting that he has been asked by FO to not pitch. I’m not sure what to add other than what I’d like to see as a fan.
I agree. The Dodgers have more than enough pitchers without him and he doesn’t need the increased injury risk from pitching. Stick to being the modern day Barry bonds(minus the roids ofc).
Moff_Nick, Yeah the Dodgers have enough pitchers, as does every team in MLB. But do they have enough good pitchers? Right now they have only 1, Yamamoto. He’s has a 1.8 bWAR. The next highest bWAR is Jack Dreyer, 3 GS, with a 0.2 bWAR. Over 5 seasons Ohtani averaged a 5.0 bWAR per season, with a 6.2 bWAR in 2022.
It’s about value. Ohtani has much more value as a two-way player. I doubt any team in MLB wouldn’t be doing the same. The risk/reward is worth letting him pitch. Some question, what if he gets hurt? What if he doesn’t? If he doesn’t that’s tremendous value for the Dodgers. It’s that value, plus his desire to do what he wants.
Ohtani wants to pitch, so he’s going to pitch. In the Dodgers organization, he’s the tail that wags the dog. They knew it going in before they signed him. It was that way in Anaheim as well. Shohei runs his own show.
Thomas Boswell:
“All baseball fans can be divided into two groups: those who come to batting practice and the others. Only those in the first category have much chance of amounting to anything.”
I will not miss BP on Saturday or Sunday,
If I were the Dodgers (I’m not and I don’t like them) I wouldn’t put Ohtani on the mound till late in the season or next. If they lose him in the lineup, they’re in trouble (as much trouble, I suppose, as a team with Mookie and Freddie might have).
The Angels put him every day in the lineup as a DH whether he’s pitching or not.
@aiden awe. Not his first year. He sat the game before and after he started. Also it was before they changed the dh rule so he sat three games week.
It will be late in the season, at least beyond the halfway point. You can see how slowly and carefully the Dodgers are taking this. My guess is his “starts” will be very short, maybe 3-4 innings.
Give me a bat!
I’d guess they want him ramped up to be able to pitch meaningful innings in the post-season. So they really aren’t in a rush…smart move.
Exactly.
How do you ramp him up without actually going through the normal rehab process? Is he just going to pitch simulated games in the bullpen and then get thrown out there in the playoffs?
It’s May, they have plenty of time to figure that out.
I’m pretty sure the dodgers can probably find a group of hitters to test his stuff at the major league level instead of the normal triple a build up starts.
Facing a lineup of:
Rushing
Kim
Conforto
Rojas
Kike
Pages
Muncy
Would be better than a triple a stint.
Pretty much. The coaches will watch the quality of his various pitches. They can also send him on a one-day rehab assignment on an off day if the logistics permit it.
Off to Citi Field to watch the Boys in Blue. Talk among yourselves.
Ohtani will be back by the All-Star game it seems, and he’s going to be ramped up to pitch in the playoffs, right when the Dodgers will need him.
With him pitching even 2 months of the season, he’s probably going to finish between 8 to 10 WAR on the season.
Pretty exciting for all baseball fans to see this could happen soon.