Shohei Ohtani has been putting together an MVP season at the plate and on the bases lately. Yesterday’s epic game saw him go 6-6 with three homers, ten runs batted in and two steals as he finished building the 50/50 club for himself.
He has done that while also rehabbing from last year’s Tommy John surgery on the side and has made enough progress that manager Dave Roberts recently left the door open to Ohtani taking the mound in the playoffs. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman pushed back on that possibility yesterday, telling Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register that Ohtani is “not really an option.”
Ohtani has recently thrown six bullpen sessions but Friedman notes that a pitcher would normally get to that point in late January while preparing for a normal season. In other words, still a couple of months away from regular season starts. Friedman goes on to point out that following the normal timeline would have Ohtani doing live bullpens in mid to late October.
Ohtani and the team are soon having a meeting about next steps, but it’s a meeting that has been planned for months and isn’t about postseason pitching. “We aren’t even thinking about that right now,” Friedman said. “Again, this is like January for him. He’s just barely a year out from Tommy John.” The meeting is more about whether to continue to live BPs in October or put his pitching on pause during the postseason, with a resumption in November.
“The whole meeting is about how we handle his rehab to have him in the best position to be ready to go in ’25 while also taking the least amount of toll on him in ’24 because he will have an important job in October as it is,” Friedman said. “Okay – if you suspend it then and do it in November, is that enough time or do you ramp him up and have him a little bit later (at the start of next season)? That’s the stuff we have to get into.”
At this point, it’s generally best not to doubt Ohtani, who has a strong tendency to silence naysayers. But he is human, despite some evidence to the contrary, and the timelines for returning to the mound this year are ambitious. It was September 19 of last year that he went under the knife, almost exactly a year ago. If often takes 14 months or longer to fully come back even if there are no setbacks, so returning in the next month would be on the fast side.
This is also the second Tommy John of Othani’s career, as he also underwent the procedure in October of 2018. He didn’t pitch at all in 2019 and then only made two brief appearances in the shortened 2020 season. Returning from the second such operation is generally more challenging than doing it the first time, which should give Ohtani and the Dodgers extra incentive to play things cautious.
The idea of Ohtani coming back may have been extra tantalizing for some fans because of the ongoing injury troubles for Dodger starters. Last year’s club won 100 games but they limped into the playoffs with an injury-ravaged rotation consisting of Bobby Miller, Lance Lynn and Clayton Kershaw, the latter of whom was clearly battling through shoulder problems. The Diamondbacks laid waste to the Dodgers and swept them out of the playoffs.
This year, the Dodgers have lost Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan and Dustin May to season-ending surgeries. Tyler Glasnow and Gavin Stone are both on the IL with arm problems and are unlikely to make it back in October. Tony Gonsolin and Kershaw are also on the IL but seem to have some chance of being factors in the playoffs. Gonsolin is currently rehabbing from his own 2023 Tommy John surgery while Kershaw is trying to work through a bone spur in his left big toe.
That leaves the Dodgers currently with Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Landon Knack and Walker Buehler as their rotation at this moment. Flaherty has been great this season but had some back problems with the Tigers earlier in the year, enough to reportedly scuttle a deal to the Yankees before the Dodgers swooped in. Yamamoto missed over three months due to a rotator cuff strain and isn’t fully stretched out yet. He made just two rehab appearances before being activated and has since made two major league starts of four innings each. The club is also still planning to give him more than four days of rest between each outing, as they have done all year. Knack has good results so far but just 61 big league innings under his belt. Buehler has a 5.54 ERA on the campaign.
The idea of Ohtani charging over the horizon on his steed to save the day would obviously be exciting but perhaps too much to ask for. Even a relief role would have appeal, bringing back memories of Ohtani striking out Mike Trout to close out the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Perhaps there’s some scenario where Ohtani, Friedman, Roberts and other staff members get together and the plans change as Ohtani supersedes expectations once again, but it’s notable that the club’s chief baseball decision maker is throwing cold water on the idea.
Warden of the North(acoss13)
It would be awesome to finally see Shohei pitch in playoff baseball even if it’s as a reliever, but I can understand the apprehension from the Dodgers. Gotta make sure he’s good for the start of the 2025 season too.
sufferforsnakes
Albert Belle was the first 50-50 guy, not Otani.
josephejones
That was 50 doubles, right? Different stat.
mlb fan
“Different stat”…In my honest opinion there’s just too many changes between eras or generations to compare statistics.
Ball changes, rule changes, analysis changes etc… And in the era of Babe Ruth, many of the best players in the world weren’t allowed to play because of their skin color.
Johnny Angel
Try different strike zones. Their are no consistent strike zones in MLB. It is absolutely brutal. In my opinion.
sufferforsnakes
Different stat, but still the first 50-50, and accomplished in 143 games, in a season that only had 144 games.
Also, he led the league in Runs, Doubles, HR, RBI, SLG, and Total Bases. And they still screwed him by giving someone from Boston the MVP.
Very Barry
Albert Belle would have been a 70-50 guy if he was fed the same baseballs that “go out of the park easily” that Aaron Judge and Ohtani are being thrown.
Belle got his numbers during an era when MLB had not yet purchased Rawlings and started changing the baseball to have some that go out of the park easily, and some that don’t.
Patriot12992
Yea but they were huffing down more roids back then too evens out
Johnny Angel
If belle was facing the mediocre pitching and brutally inconsistent strike zones in today’s MLB I can say with all certainty 85-65 .
Johnny Angel
With or without roids
cards99
lmao that’s a joke right?
DarrenDreifortsContract
During the steroid era lol.
Luke Strong
Why would he ever pitch again? He’s clearly at his best and able to stay healthy as a hitter, and pitching is almost surely going to get him hurt again.
Very Barry
Can you really be an “all-time” great “position” player and not actually play defense??? Babe Ruth didn’t get the luxury of “only” having to bat. We keep lowering the bar to increase the profiles of these guys. Isn’t it enough to have already compromised any integrity in the game by dictating outcomes through balls that go out of the park easily, and balls that don’t. Tommy Pham’s comments about the “balls they were hitting seemed dead” was met with deaf ears. You can dictate outcomes by throwing the balls that go out easily to the team you want to win, and making the team you want to lose hit the balls that don’t go out easily.
scarfish
Quality comment
ohyeadam
Barry, if he was done pitching he wouldn’t be a DH anymore. He’s only DHing due to the Tommy John and the pitching. He would be in RF or 1B, oddly both those spot are already covered by future HoFers on his team so maybe LF, if he decided to stop pitching
dan-9
Because he wants to. Because doing both matters to him. Because he is Shohei Ohtani.
BlueSkies_LA
Thank you, at least somebody gets it. Too much analysis is still too much analysis.
Heywally
Sometimes you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
And sometimes, you shouldn’t try. This is one of those times.
Heywally
And I’m talking about the rest of his career. if you’re just trying to win games, why risk the best offensive player in baseball’s health/stamina by having him pitch too?
This one belongs to the Reds
It is amazing how many of these “reports” turn out to be total BS.
Chalk it up to Ricky Bobby reporting.
ohyeadam
Anyone who believed he would throw this playoffs has also helped out Nigerian princes via email
Brew88
I hope my money wire saved her.
BlueSkies_LA
Nigerian Princesses all around the world thank you.
Rsox
Sounds like they threw it out there and when the feedback came back as a resounding “are they nuts?!” They reversed course. No point gambling with his arm for a few innings in the playoffs
mlb fan
“Are they nuts”…I think it was just pre-playoffs subterfuge, designed to get into potential opponent’s heads that “Ohtani might come running out of the bullpen” at any moment. Surely, A. Friedman and D. Roberts speak frequently and both knew the real situation.
Jean Matrac
The thing that’s nuts is the idea that baseball execs would make player decisions based on some sort of media, or fan reaction. Like letting focus groups being a way to run a baseball team.
BlueSkies_LA
You know, this is getting kind of weird. Roberts replied to a reporter’s question about Ohtani pitching by saying it was a non-zero chance. Meaning, the chance was close to zero. That’s the sum total of what was thrown out there. If you pay attention to what was actually said, instead of the way it was spun here and elsewhere, you’ll know that no course was reversed, they’ve just said the exact same thing in two difference ways.
Jean Matrac
BlueSkies, I agree. Since Roberts wasn’t absolutely definitive, people take what he said as “so he’s saying there’s a chance”, without really understanding what was being said.
cards99
For the love of all that is good and holy, let Ohtani pitch in the postseason
vtadave
Friedman would never lie to the media I’m sure.
Jerry Hairston Jr's Toupee
I doubt Ohtani’s command is all that great right now anyway. Just like having another Buehler out there….
DarrenDreifortsContract
With the offensive season Ohtani is having and past injuries. He should strictly be a hitter from here on out.
bloomquist4hof
They will pitch him until they can’t. As great as his last couple seasons have been he is that much more valuable as a pitcher. I could see a transition to relief at some point and eventually to a full time DH if he gets hurt again or becomes ineffective but they will likely start him until it doesn’t make sense. At least it seems that way to me.
RonDarlingShouldntBeInTheHallOfFame
If Ohtani wants to pitch in the post season, no way the Dodgers stop him. I’m betting he pitches in relief unless the Dodgers bow out early again..
gbs42
There’s an easy way for the Dodgers to stop him from pitching in the postseason: don’t let him. Is it going to walk out to the mound with his glove and demand the ball?
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NickTheDev
How is this helpful?
BlueSkies_LA
Trolling is never intended to be helpful.
gbs42
Wow, I imagine it took a while to compile that list. Glad to see I’m not on it.
Is Rocker49 three times as bad as everyone else, earning him three spots on the list?
Jean Matrac
I’m disappointed I didn’t make the list.
Johnny Angel
I agree
empirejim
Friedman talking about Ohtani as a starter, many of us are thinking of him as a later inning reliever. Dont need to be able to go 50 pitches, just one inning max. If he’s regularly throwing BP’s at high intensity there’s no reason not to make use of his talent other than an abundance of caution. He could truly be a huge difference maker and key to going all the way.
Jean Matrac
When you have the best player in baseball, with significant salary committed to him for another 9 seasons, wouldn’t any team proceed with an abundance of caution?
YankeesBleacherCreature
It’s also a possibility that he could hurt himself and be unable to hit. While it’ll be fun to see, it’s not the smartest to do it.
BlueSkies_LA
So what’s the difference between a non-zero chance and not really an option? It’s a non-zero difference. So this is still a non-zero story.
Brew88
There’s a non zero chance that Muncy pitches in playoffs, too
Roob3ucla
What does this say about Dave Roberts. His boss came out and shut down Robert’s unfounded claims. It’s always a good sign when the front office and manager have competing messaging lol
BPax
I wonder how many baseball fans bought tickets to last night’s game just to see Ohtani and see if he’s “really that good.?” Yes, he is.