If there was one big surprise this spring, it was the Dodgers’ decision to have Shohei Ohtani “slow-play” his pitching program over the second half of camp and focus — at least at the start of the season — on solely being a designated hitter.
Eventually, the Dodgers maintain, Ohtani will return to pitching this year, after being unable to all of last season while recovering from a second career Tommy John surgery.
But, both manager Dave Roberts and pitching coach Mark Prior explained, Ohtani and the club made a collaborative choice to wait on fully building him up on the mound, halting his bullpen sessions once he began DHing in Cactus League games.
Barring an undisclosed physical issue — something Roberts and Prior repeatedly insisted was not the case — it means that, for one of the first times in his career, Ohtani is willingly delaying his return to two-way duties, if only temporarily, in order to focus on his hitting.
“I think right now, there’s a little bit of a shift towards making sure he’s dialed in, ready to go from a DH standpoint,” Prior said last week. “I think this was a good time to just kind of like de-load and make sure he’s geared up, ready to go, and then continue to throw and then gear up once we get back.”
The move does make sense for Ohtani and the team.
The Dodgers were never going to need 20-plus starts out of Ohtani this year. In fact, the more he pitches, the more complicated handling him will be, potentially necessitating extra off-days that would keep his bat out of the lineup.
What the Dodgers really want is to have Ohtani as an option come the stretch run of the season (assuming he rediscovers some semblance of the stuff that helped him post a 2.84 ERA as a pitcher from 2021-2023). Delaying his pitching program now, especially amid the logistical hurdles of this week’s Tokyo trip, does nothing to harm that goal. And in the meantime, it should help Ohtani — who is also coming back from a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder — get back to his normal self at the plate.
