Los Angeles Dodgers fans waiting to see Shohei Ohtani show off the other half of his game will likely have to wait at least a month into the season.
Speaking at the team’s FanFest, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts indicated the reigning NL MVP will make his return as a pitcher in May, responding “sounds about right” when asked about Ohtani pitching in that move per The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya.
Roberts reportedly declined to provide any specific date, but said Ohtani’s rehab was going “pretty smooth” and the team would know more once he was throwing bullpens.
Ohtani underwent a brace surgery on his torn UCL at the end of the 2023 season and spent the entire 2024 season as a full-time DH. He was initially expected to be ready to pitch by Opening Day in 2025, but his timeline was complicated when he tore the labrum in his non-pitching shoulder in Game 2 of the World Series. That injury required another surgery.
Also complicating Ohtani’s return is the fact the Dodgers don’t want to lose his bat for any significant amount of time. General manager Brandon Gomes said earlier this week Ohtani would go straight from live batting practices to the rotation, via Athlon Sports:
“He can’t just go out on a rehab assignment,” Gomes said. “We would lose our DH.”
Ohtani holds a career 3.01 ERA as an MLB pitcher, but has struggled to stay healthy on that side of the ball. He has thrown more than 135 innings in a season only once, in 2022, and has now undergone two major UCL surgeries since coming stateside.
The Dodgers don’t need Ohtani to pitch for him to be valuable, though, as evidenced by both the first 50-homer, 50-stolen base season in MLB history and the team’s considerable advertising windfall since signing him.
What will the Dodgers’ Opening Day rotation look like without Shohei Ohtani?
When the Dodgers officially landed Roki Sasaki, the move left them with one of the most high-upside rotations in MLB history. In no particular order, they boasted:
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Shohei Ohtani
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Blake Snell
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Yoshinobu Yamamoto
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Tyler Glasnow
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Roki Sasaki
All five of those pitchers could deliver an ace-level season if they play up to their potential. Complicating matters, however, is the matter of health, as none of those guys stayed healthy for all of 2024. The team has also indicated it will use a six-man rotation, necessitating another pitcher.
Now, with Ohtani definitely not being ready to pitch around Opening Day, the Dodgers have two rotation slots to fill in addition to Snell, Yamamoto, Glasnow and Sasaki. They don’t like in options, however.
Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May are both effective starting pitchers who missed all of 2024 due to Tommy John surgery and could be ready to rejoin the team’s rotation. Gonsolin is probably the better bet given that May still has yet to throw more than 56 innings in a season and could profile more as a reliever at this point in his career.
Bobby Miller, Landon Knack, Nick Frasso, Justin Wrobleski and Ben Casparius are also all on the 40-man roster and could be options depending on how spring training goes.
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