Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani will be making his next appearance on the mound in early April against a familiar foe.
Ohtani will be going up against the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday, April 8, on the road, marking the place where he made the start in the 2025 World Series.
The righty made his season debut on the mound on Tuesday, March 31, pitching well despite the rain and the environment being less than ideal.
Despite being a full-time hitter, Ohtani will still make regular starts for the Dodgers, officially serving as a member of the rotation.
The Dodgers are going to be careful with him, however, as they try to keep him upright for the entire season.
He came back from his second Tommy John surgery in the middle of 2025, but he is now starting his first full season as a pitcher with the Dodgers in 2026.
In his first start, Ohtani went six clean innings, allowing no runs and putting up six strikeouts. He only allowed a hit and totaled three walks.
He was not totally perfect; his fastball velocity was down, and the spin on his pitches was not ideal, but he still managed to get outs — the main job of a pitcher.
Manager Dave Roberts noted that Ohtani was not at his sharpest, but he did a great job battling through the setbacks.
“Obviously in that last inning, the mound started to get to him a little bit,” Roberts said. “Being able to fix it and kind of get his footing back was good to get through that Hoskins at-bat. But yeah, not a whole lot affects his mind.”
Ohtani, for his part, made it clear that he is feeling quite good about his ability to pitch, noting a good deal of progress in his body now that he is no longer affected by his surgery and health limitations.
“Last year, I felt good. But this year, I do feel a lot more loose and easy pitching overall,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “Looking back at today’s outing specifically, that wasn’t necessarily the case. So that’s something I want to work on.”
Ohtani’s Cy Young goals
Ohtani wants a Cy Young, and everyone in the organization knows it. The pressure is on for him to take advantage of the peak of his powers, though he will not get as many innings as other players who only pitch.
Ohtani will be pitching on an atypical schedule due to his hitting. Dave Roberts outlined that he will be pitching once every seven or eight days. Lefty Justin Wrobleski will be filling in for the Dodgers if there is any gap as essentially a sixth starter.
Additionally, Wrobleski will serve as an alternative to Roki Sasaki if he has any serious struggles during a start.
The Dodgers will be working with a careful hand, as Roberts has explained before, and multiple other organizational pieces will help cover Ohtani.
“I’m going start by start,” Roberts said. “It’s just not an exact science, as much as people want to think it might be, and some people probably do.
“Innings aren’t all created equal. All throws aren’t created equal. We talked to him a lot on how he’s feeling, and if there’s days that we got to kind of give him a couple extra days, we’re willing to do that.”
If he stays healthy and remains this effective, along with some more strikeouts, Ohtani will certainly be in the race and will a serious chance to add hardware.
