Shohei Ohtani pitched off a mound for the primary time this spring right now, as famous by Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. The bullpen session consisted of 14 throws, all of which had been fastballs. Ohtani’s velocity sat 92-94 mph, which is nicely under his regular mid-90s velocity however not stunning for a pitcher who remains to be a number of months away from pitching in a giant league recreation.
The information that Ohtani has resumed throwing and that he largely seemed good doing so is unquestionably heartening for Dodgers followers, however his timeline for a return to the mound stays unchanged. The membership’s plan seems to be for Ohtani to hitch the membership’s rotation in some unspecified time in the future in Could, with a five-man rotation set for use by the Dodgers till then. As relayed by Ardaya, supervisor Dave Roberts indicated that Ohtani may resume dealing with reside hitters earlier than the membership flies out to Tokyo for an early begin to the common season in opposition to the Cubs subsequent month.
Whereas the early returns of Ohtani’s rehab course of are encouraging, loads of questions stay between now and Ohtani’s first official pitching look in a Dodgers uniform. Ohtani’s rehab course of as a pitcher should be balanced in opposition to his duties because the Dodgers’ on a regular basis DH, creating a singular conundrum for the Dodgers to try to work via. The Angels handled the same drawback when Ohtani tried to renew pitching in 2020 following Tommy John surgical procedure, and that ended disastrously as he recorded simply 5 outs and turned in his solely below-average season as a giant league hitter.
That mentioned, it seems the Dodgers aren’t prone to ship Ohtani on a rehab task earlier than he makes his return to pitching. Whereas rehab assignments are customary for pitchers coming off main surgical procedures, Ardaya notes that the membership has had success returning Clayton Kershaw to the massive league mound and not using a rehab task prior to now after prolonged stays on the injured checklist, and he relays that pitching coach Mark Prior emphasised that rehabbing and hitting on the identical time “appeared to end up fairly nicely” for the reigning NL MVP final 12 months. As a substitute for a rehab task, the plan appears to be for the Dodgers to carry simulated video games for Ohtani earlier than the Dodgers’ often scheduled recreation for that day begins, permitting him to face reside hitters within the type of both gamers from the massive league bench or minor league hitters.
Ohtani and the Dodgers shall be trying to strike this stability all whereas Ohtani seems to be to place offseason surgical procedure behind him. Ohtani was injured sliding into second base throughout Recreation Two of the World Collection final 12 months and finally ended up going beneath the knife to restore a torn labrum after dislocating his shoulder on that aforementioned slide. Former Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger famously struggled to return to kind as a hitter after the same harm, and Ardaya notes Ohtani has admitted that whilst camp opens up he’s nonetheless coping with a considerably restricted vary of movement in his shoulder. Nonetheless, there’s a month left till the Dodgers start the common season in Tokyo, so Ohtani nonetheless has loads of time to get his swing into a great place whilst he balances that with rehabbing as a pitcher.
Ohtani wasn’t the one participant in Dodgers camp to obtain a notable harm replace right now. as famous by Invoice Plunkett of the Orange County Register, veteran first baseman Freddie Freeman advised reporters he was “nearly a full participant” at this level in his rehab course of after present process offseason ankle surgical procedure. Freeman has resumed doing every part however operating at this level, and whereas he’s not anticipated to be prepared for the beginning of Spring Coaching video games later this month Freeman emphasised that he stays on monitor to start out the season within the lineup for the Dodgers in Japan.
