Dodgers Team News

Barry Bonds Thinks Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani Should Remain Only DH

Shohei Ohtani will begin the 2025 season in the starting rotation after spending his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers as the designated hitter while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Read more: Shohei Ohtani Reveals When He’ll Return to Pitching For Dodgers

He unanimously won the National League Most Valuable Player after becoming the first player in league history to hit 50 home runs and steal at least 50 bases in the same season, founding MLB’s 50/50 club.

Barry Bonds, one of the greatest sluggers of all time, joined Foul Territory on Monday offering up his opinion about Ohtani and what he should do this season.

“I think he needs to stay at DH and do what he does best,” Bonds said. “I think it’s just too much on him. I think he does and what he brings to that team right now, why change something that’s going great?

“You know I think maybe come in as a reliever. Because he is so solid, so hard throwing. He has got that great slider, splitter, everything is great. Come in throw an inning or two or something but maintain what you do well.”

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Ohtani has a career earned run average of 3.01 ERA across 86 starts as a pitcher. He isn’t expected to go on any type of rehab assignment because the Dodgers need his bat.

“He can’t just go out on a rehab assignment,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said on New York Post’s “The Show” podcast. “We would lose our DH.”

For Ohtani to return to the mound, he needs to check off a series of boxes, according to Gomes.

“We’re making sure we hit these boxes on the front end,” Gomes said of Ohtani’s rehab. “We’ll build him up, and then when he’s ready to go and gone through his live BPs, then he can plug back into the rotation. But a lot of that is figuring it out along the way.”

Ohtani still has a little ways to go before he is back to 100 percent but the Dodgers look forward to having him make his two-way player debut in 2025.

More news: Dodgers’ Tyler Glasnow Provides Huge Update on Health Heading Into 2025 Season

Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

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Maren Angus

Maren Angus-Coombs was born in Los Angeles and raised in Nashville, Tenn. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and has been a sports writer since 2008. Despite being raised in the South, her sports obsession has always been in Los Angeles. She is currently a staff writer for Dodgers Nation and the LA Sports Report Network.

3 Comments

  1. And you should have stayed off the roids. Crawl back into your hole cheater. No one cares what you think.

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