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 evening’s sport at Citi Area (hyperlink through 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 evening’s 13-inning sport — 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 received 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 workout routines. He’s nonetheless not anticipated to pitch in video games till after the All-Star Break.
The Dodgers face a singular ramp-up course of with the three-time MVP. He’s working again from his second main elbow operation. That will have warranted warning even when he have been only a pitcher. Each different pitcher would spend a number of weeks on a minor league rehab task earlier than returning to an MLB mound. The Dodgers aren’t going to take Ohtani’s bat out of the large league lineup to try this. He required offseason surgical procedure on his non-throwing shoulder after tearing his labrum on a slide throughout the World Sequence. They’ll additionally want to watch his total fatigue degree as he builds his arm whereas persevering with to hit day-after-day. He has began 49 of their first 51 video games at designated hitter.
That each one produces an advanced 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 12 months’s unprecedented 50-50 season with a .302/.397/.643 line by means of 232 plate appearances. He leads the majors with 53 runs and is tied with Aaron Decide, Kyle Schwarber and Cal Raleigh for the league lead with 17 homers.
