Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani has only been hitting for the past month, but his pitching return is back on track after a delay.
During the team’s last road trip in Philadelphia, Ohtani pitched in a surprise bullpen session, but he suffered more left knee discomfort, resulting in another pitching shutdown.
Since then, he has not been seen publicly throwing for two weeks until Saturday, August 8th, when he was out playing catch.
This is the second step of a three-part pitching return plan for Ohtani, signaling his recovery is going well and that the Dodgers may get their star back to full power.
After the recent Cubs series, Ohtani laid out that his progression would go: throwing plyo balls, then playing catch, and finally throwing bullpen sessions again.
There was no exact word on which stage he was at, if any, but he has seemingly felt good doing the plyo work and playing catch.
Now, the question is how soon a bullpen session could come for Ohtani.
The catch session surprised manager Dave Roberts, who was asked during his pregame scrum about when Ohtani could throw, and he claimed not to know.
However, Ohtani was out there tossing the ball, and hopefully, there is word on what a timeline starts to look like.
The Dodgers head home after Sunday’s game vs. Arizona, and during the homestand, if Ohtani feels good, he should end up pitching a bullpen session at some point.
Why the Dodgers need Ohtani back to pitching
It is no mystery that pitching has been a problem for the Dodgers over the past few weeks. In the immediate close of the season, Ohtani can help provide quality innings.
Similar to what happened last year, the Dodgers will likely slowly build him up to full strength, giving him an inning or two at first, then starting to push him up to a full 100-pitch workload.
For their three-peat odds to go up, the Dodgers need a fully built-up Ohtani, and to achieve that, he will need at least a month of pitching to really get in a good spot.
