How much will Shohei Ohtani throw for the Dodgers in 2025?

When Shohei Ohtani tried to return from a Tommy John operation for the first time, things didn’t go well at first.

In July 2020, more than 22 months, from his first Ulnar band reconstruction as a rookie in 2018, ohtani took the hill in Oakland Coliseum and did not exist to take up an edition instead of taking five runs on athletics after 30 ineffective parking spaces.

A week later, the right -hander fought again in a home game against the Houston Astros and needed 50 pitches to record five outs, while two more runs had been applied and astonishing five walks had been published.

During the rest of the 60 game season of the year, Ohtani did not stand up again and was closed on the hill shortly after his second start An MRI revealed a waved flexor pronounist mass in its right forearm. At no point in this pandemic campaign looked right. The future three-time MVP career on average (.

Five years later, when Ohtani was only removed from the Tommy John Revision procedure for 18 months, which he subjected to the end of the 2023 season, it is a story that the Dodgers are careful before repeating.

You know that ohtani is probably faster than pitcher at the moment. They believe that, as soon as he returns to the hill, he will look more like the talent of Cy Young-Kaliber, which he was from 2021 to 2023 when he recovered from his dark performance in 2020 with an ERA of 2.84 in the next three years.

But for a team that has an otherwise deep start pitch employee and primarily counts on ohtanis bat to lead the deflection of the World Series, the Dodgers have chosen an increasingly cautious approach for the pitching plan of the two-way star.

Tuesday marks a full month since Ohtani recently thrown a Bullpen session. And while he is supposed to get out of a hill again on Saturday – in his first bullpen since February 25th – it remains no hard time bar if he could at some point the rotation of the Dodgers.

At that point it doesn’t really have to be.

“As soon as he came through the pen on Saturday, we will have a better idea of ​​what a plan looks like,” said manager Dave Roberts. “But I don’t really want to speculate too much. It is difficult to do that.”

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani warms up on February 11th during a spring training in Phoenix with jugs and catchers.

(Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)

All of this marks a tone shift from which the Dodgers were before the beginning of spring training when Roberts initially aimed at the fact that Ohtani appeared in big League games again.

This timeline was followed in the first weeks of the camp, where Ohtani completed four Bullpen meetings in his first month on the Camelback Ranch.

As soon as the Slugger-Der also comes back from the offseason surgery to repair a torn Labrum in his left, not searching shoulder, in Cactus League games, his bullpen sessions suddenly stopped.

The team was not because of an injury. Not because of dead arm or fatigue. In fact, ohtani said during a press conference in Tokyo last week SoHe actually had the luxury of dialing back to Japan in the middle of the logistical challenges of the team’s opening trip.

“This is according to plan,” said ohtani by interpreter Will Ireton. “I am actually very satisfied with how things went.”

Why did Ohtani slow down his pitching increase? And why is his timeline suddenly so unclear to return to the hill?

Because he has admitted, he at the moment “wants to prioritize the stroke aspect of his game”. In the point of view of the Dodgers, every production that you will receive from Ohtanis Pitching this year is something like a bonus. And to avoid the pitfalls he experienced in 2020 and to avoid an additional risk of injury that could affect his performance or availability this year, both the player and the team seem to be satisfied with the fact that he can take the time to complete his throwing program.

“Because things went according to plan,” said Ohtani, “this is a time when I can actually get a breather.”

Shohei Ohtani will go on the plate on March 18 during a game against the Cubs in Tokyo Dome.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Ohtanis Return to Pitching this season was always complicated. Last season, ohtani slowly increased his John-Wurst program after the Tombile and came to the point at which he faces a bitch again in the live strike practice. But in October he and the team decided to hold a live sessions until after the post-season to surpass his body during his first career appearance in the playoffs.

When Ohtani tore his Labrum in game 2 of the World Series into the second basis, it delayed its timeline and demanded that he had to spend the early part of WinterReha this injury after an operation in the first week of November.

For this reason, the long-awaited completion of the pitching recovery process in Ohtan requires rehabilitation gymnastics in the coming regular season.

A normal pitcher would probably spend about a month for a rehab order with Minor-League before returning to the majors, similar to Walker Buehler at the beginning of last season when he came back from a second career-tommy John process. A challenge in itself, from which only a few MLB pitcher have successfully recovered.

But neither ohtani nor the Dodgers want to miss time as the everyday hitter of the team to make such a rehab. So he will start building up through simulated games that will probably take place in a game with a big league hours before his goal. His first time that he meets the same competition and played on the same competition will probably not come until he achieved his full return as a two-way player in the big leagues.

Although it is inevitable, this is created for a stressful schedule that could invite a whole range of variables, and bring the 30-year-old superstar into a situation that he has not yet experienced in the majors.

“We really have no template or roadmap or even experience to do a man with a two-way situation,” said Pitching trainer Mark Prior at the beginning of this month. “So we rely on him how he feels.”

Although Ohtani has explained that he feels good-so that during his spring bullpen he is back in his delivery, the risk of climbing too quickly, or routinely meet the pitching speeds that are not yet completely willing to think about the pile again up to date.

Remember that the Pitching staff of the Dodgers should be good without ohtani. The team returns the Co -Aaces of last year, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow. In this off -season, they added two more potential aces, Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki. And they have had enough depth, from Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin (who return from their own elbow operations) to Landon Knack, Bobby Miller and at some point Clayton Kershaw (from whom he is also expected to recover the first few months of the season, and recover from offseas -off operations).

What the Dodgers really want is that Ohtani will be available as a potential impact on pitching option.

And although Roberts said the team would “banish the bank right now” if he was asked about ohtani’s potential to take 18 to 20 starts this season, it would not be a surprise if he would only do about half of this amount in the next six months.

The Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani will be facing the fishing rates in the Dodger Stadium on Sunday during a pre -season game against the Angels in the Dodger Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

“This is a long -term game for Shoheis well -being. So we make sure that we are as careful and careful as we can be,” said Roberts. “For 2025, the most important piece is that he will be able to the end of the season and until October.”

This could be a disappointment for Dodgers fans who have not yet experienced Ohtanis Pitching Talents. It is a victim who has to accept Ohtani himself and marked the first time in his MLB career that he is no longer lied to full-time tasks as soon as possible.

But if it means that he and the Dodgers can avoid the kind of battles he had in 2020, it is a compromise that everyone involved makes happy.

“The main thing is that we always want the boys at the end of the season,” repeated Prior again. “There are many variables that are unique in its situation. I think it’s just about being open and trying to be careful and pursue the right approach.”