Dodgers officials and Shohei Ohtani met last Sunday to discuss the state of the two-way star’s pitching rehab program, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Thursday.
However, no concrete decisions were made about how Ohtani would continue his pitching progression next month, when he will also be the Dodgers’ designated hitter in his first career appearance in Major League Baseball’s postseason.
As for the highly unlikely — but also highly tantalizing — idea of Ohtani taking the mound in a playoff game?
“It just wasn’t even talked about,” Friedman said, “because it’s not a thought.”
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Instead, Sunday’s meeting centered on a delicate balance Ohtani and the Dodgers will have to strike in October, when Ohtani could be ready to begin facing hitters in live batting practice sessions but will also be serving as the Dodgers’ designated hitter in the playoffs.
This is a conundrum Ohtani and the team anticipated back in spring training, knowing Ohtani was scheduled to reach one of the more taxing stages of his rehab from last September’s elbow surgery — facing hitters in live at-bats — right around the time the club would be attempting to make a World Series run.
So, before the start of the season, the two sides put a meeting on the books: Once the Dodgers clinched a postseason berth, Ohtani would reconvene with club officials to begin to determine the best path forward.
Six months later, Ohtani, Friedman, head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache (who performed Ohtani’s Tommy John revision surgery last year) and other members of the team’s training and player performance staff met on Sunday.
And while they didn’t make any firm decisions, they laid out a few potential options for the $700 million offseason signing.
“The question was — and we couldn’t answer it in March — how do we want to handle live BPs?” Friedman said. “With the added adrenaline [of the postseason] and things he will go through that he has not gone through before.”
If Ohtani proceeds with live BPs in October, it would set him up better to make his return to full-time pitching at the start of 2025.
