Shohei Ohtani Could Pitch In Postseason

Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani has just been a one-way superstar this season. He underwent Tommy John surgery late last year and hasn’t been able to pitch at all for the Dodgers. The club has long planned for him to focus on serving as the designated hitter while also rehabbing his elbow for a return to the mound in 2025, but it seems there’s a possibility of Ohtani at least doing some pitching in October. Manager Dave Roberts said in recent days that there’s a non-zero chance Ohtani pitches in the postseason, a situation that Bill Plunkett examined yesterday for the Orange County Register.

As noted by Plunkett, Ohtani has been gradually building the intensity of his throwing program throughout the year. He recently progressed to mound work and has thrown from the hill six times now, with his most recent session getting to 25 pitches and a velocity of 93 miles per hour. The next step will be Ohtani facing hitters in live batting practice, which will occur in the coming weeks.

Ohtani is almost at the one-year mark from his surgery, which was announced on September 19 of last year. Generally, coming back from UCL surgeries takes a bit longer than that, but it’s not unheard of for a guy to be returning on this sort of timeline. However, pitchers undergoing the normal rehab process don’t do so while serving as elite hitters. Ohtani is pushing towards an unprecedented 50-50 season, currently at 47 homers and 48 stolen bases. His overall performance is enough that he’s strongly in the mix to be named Most Valuable Player in a few weeks, all while he’s been undergoing his throwing program in the background.

“Maybe it’s a good thing that he has the ability to disconnect, compartmentalize and go hit and do all the things he’s doing on the offensive side,” pitching coach Mark Prior said. “Where normally as pitchers, you’re kind of ingrained with the same monotony. You can kind of get bogged down in some of the – every ache, soreness; good, bad, indifferent throw. Maybe it gives him a chance to actually be free and relaxed. But it’s still pretty impressive.”

Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that Ohtani’s rehab is remarkable, since that seems to be how he attacks every baseball challenge that comes his way, but it’s now going to put the Dodgers in position to make a difficult choice. As noted by Plunkett, the club has always planned to shut down the throwing program during the postseason but Ohtani’s progress might open…