Shohei Ohtani will hit a milestone this weekend in his return to pitching. He’s slated to throw stay batting observe to teammates earlier than Sunday night time’s recreation at Citi Area (hyperlink by way of Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). It is going to be his first time throwing to hitters since his 2023 elbow surgical procedure. Ohtani was initially anticipated to throw BP on Saturday, however the Dodgers pushed that again after final night time’s 13-inning recreation — which additionally featured an early rain delay — went till 1 a.m. on the East Coast.
Ohtani has been throwing bullpen periods for the previous couple months. He bought as much as 50 pitches final weekend and has thrown his fastball within the mid-90s. Ardaya writes that Ohtani just lately started to reintroduce his breaking stuff into these workouts. He’s nonetheless not anticipated to pitch in video games till after the All-Star Break.
The Dodgers face a novel ramp-up course of with the three-time MVP. He’s working again from his second main elbow operation. That might have warranted warning even when he had been only a pitcher. Each different pitcher would spend a number of weeks on a minor league rehab project earlier than returning to an MLB mound. The Dodgers aren’t going to take Ohtani’s bat out of the massive league lineup to do this. He required offseason surgical procedure on his non-throwing shoulder after tearing his labrum on a slide throughout the World Collection. They’ll additionally want to watch his total fatigue degree as he builds his arm whereas persevering with to hit day by day. He has began 49 of their first 51 video games at designated hitter.
That each one produces a sophisticated rehab plan that has moved fairly slowly. It has now been 20 months since Ohtani underwent the UCL restore that ended his Angels tenure. It hasn’t in any respect slowed his offensive dominance, after all. He has adopted up final yr’s unprecedented 50-50 season with a .302/.397/.643 line by 232 plate appearances. He leads the majors with 53 runs and is tied with Aaron Choose, Kyle Schwarber and Cal Raleigh for the league lead with 17 homers.
