The National League home run leader will start for the Dodgers on the mound on Monday against the Padres. Shohei Ohtani will make his pitching debut for the Dodgers in the series opener against the divisional rival, the team announced Sunday night.
How long Ohtani will last in the game remains to be seen but it likely won’t be too long. His longest simulated game, facing minor league hitters in recent weeks, has been three innings.
Ohtani told reporters on Saturday night that he was nearing a return. From Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic:
“I think it has a lot to do with pitch counts, but with the last live BP, I felt like the intensity was there and my stuff was game-ready,” Ohtani said after slugging a pair of home runs, including career home run No. 250, in an 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants.
Manager Dave Roberts after Sunday’s game against the Giants, “He’s ready to pitch in a big league game. He let us know,” per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register.
This was shortly before the Dodgers made the announcement that Ohtani would start Monday against the Padres.
All along there was nothing normal in Ohtani’s rehab from September 2023 Tommy John surgery, his second such procedure. He’s been balancing rehabbing his pitching arm while also being the everyday designated hitter for the team. Because he’s on the active roster, Ohtani could not go to the minors for rehab games like pitchers usually do. But nothing Ohtani does is really normal.
The usual caveat of throwing a pitcher into the fire even though he isn’t quite built up is muted somewhat by the fact that Ohtani is literally an extra pitcher on the roster. Already active as a two-way player, he does not count against the 13-pitcher limit. So him going, say, only two or three innings, isn’t as onerous for a staff since Ohtani pitching wouldn’t cost them another active pitcher on the roster.
So it’s into the breach we go, with Ohtani adding pitching back to his bag of tricks, for the first time with the Dodgers.
