The Dodgers are balancing Shohei Ohtani’s pitching and hitting in camp this year for the first time. Last season, he was recovering from a serious elbow injury as a pitcher and this time around, he’s getting ready to return to the mound while also juggling his return to the plate after offseason shoulder surgery.
For now, the Dodgers have decided to slow down his pitching rehab while he picks things up as a hitter.
“We just felt that to intensify the bullpens alongside of the intensity of the games (as DH) wasn’t smart,” manager Dave Roberts said (via OC Register). “So we just wanted to kind of slow-play it.”
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The plan is to have Ohtani in the starting lineup from the get-go. The Dodgers open sooner than 28 other teams this year, as they start with a two-game series in Tokyo on March 18-19. To reiterate, the expectation is Ohtani will serve as the Dodgers’ designated hitter in both of those games.
As far as returning to the mound? That’s murkier. Ohtani last threw off a mound Feb. 25, per reports. Roberts told reporters that sometime in May is a reasonable guess, but also said, “we just don’t know.”
“I just feel, and we all feel, just trying to make it a broad time to return” without “any kind of expectation,” Roberts said (OC Register).
Ohtani won his third MVP last season when he hit .310/.390/.646 (190 OPS+) with 38 doubles, seven triples, 54 homers, 130 RBI, 134 runs, 59 stolen bases and 9.2 WAR for the World Series champion Dodgers. He last pitched in 2023 and for the Angels that season he was 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA (142 ERA+), 1.06 WHIP and 167 strikeouts in 132 innings.
