Shohei Ohtani to face hitters for first time since 2023 elbow surgery

Shohei Ohtani has reached another milestone in his return to two-way stardom.

The Los Angeles Dodgers star will face live hitters on Saturday while the team is on the road facing the New York Mets, manager Dave Roberts told reporters Friday. It will be the first time he has faced hitters since undergoing UCL surgery at the end of the 2023 season.

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Ohtani has thrown occasional bullpen sessions for much of the season, most recently adding breaking pitches to his repertoire earlier this week. Roberts said he has looked good in those sessions, reportedly reaching as high as 95 mph, but the team is still anxious to see how he performs as he progresses:

“The stuff looks good. It’s easy 94, 95 coming out of his hand. It’s a really good throw. I think we’re all anxious to see how it looks to hitters. When he decides to ramp it up it, I’m anxious about that too, but it’s all on his schedule. It really is. When he’s going to introduce the slider to hitters, when he really wants to ramp up velocity, all that stuff is between him and the doctor.”

Complicating Ohtani’s return to the mound is his obligations as a hitter, where he’s currently the favorite to take home a second straight MVP award. Roberts confirmed Friday the Dodgers still do not plan to send Ohtani on a rehab assignment as a pitcher because the team does not want to lose its MVP leadoff hitter:

“Obviously, the build-up is important, but so is him taking five at-bats a game.”

When exactly Ohtani will make that return remains extremely unclear. He was originally supposed to be ready for Opening Day, but a torn labrum in the 2024 World Series threw off his offseason rehab plans enough that they spilled well into this season. Roberts said last month he was “still a couple months away,” but said Friday “I don’t think anyone knows how the next couple months are going to look.”

The timing will depend on how Ohtani is feeling, especially on Saturday, but Roberts did indicate some optimism by saying “I don’t see how he couldn’t feel that it’s starting to become more realistic.”

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The Dodgers obviously aren’t going to rush Ohtani back, even if they need rotation help. His return would allow them to move to a long-planned six-man rotation, putting less pressure on a set of injury-prone arms, but they’re already in first place in the NL West with 99.3% playoff odds at Baseball Prospectus.

The priority is for Ohtani to be all systems go when the postseason begins, hence why they don’t seem to be fretting whether he’ll be pitching in June.

As for the rest of the rotation, Roberts also said that Tyler Glasnow had completed a successful bullpen session:

“He threw today and I think it was 16 or 19 pitches. He said he felt great afterwards. Don’t know what that means as far as velocity, but I know he was getting after pretty good.”

His return from right shoulder inflammation also remains unclear. Starting pitchers Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki and Emmet Sheehan are also currently on the injured list, as are a plethora of relievers including Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech, Kirby Yates and Evan Phillips.

The team currently ranks 21st in MLB by ERA.