While there has been some chatter about 50-50 man Shohei Ohtani returning to the mound to pitch in the playoffs, Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman isn’t lending any credence to that theory.
Speaking this week, per Bill Plunkett of the Los Angeles Daily News, Friedman said the team has no plan to have Ohtani pitch in a game this year.
“We aren’t even thinking about that right now,” Friedman said. “Again, this is like January for him (in a normal year). He’s just barely a year out from Tommy John.
“To me, he’s not really an option.”
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Ohtani did confirm the team plans to meet with him next week to discuss his pitching rehab, but not with an eye on 2024.
Without pitching on his mind this year, Ohtani became the first player in major-league history to hit 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in the same season when he passed both milestones in a monster game on Thursday against the Miami Marlins.
“The meeting is about his rehab progression and timing for how to get him ready for next year – which has always been planned to get into,” Friedman said. “If you strip away what’s going on with the Dodgers, right now he’s thrown about five bullpens, which is the equivalent of January, late January in his progression (in a normal off-season buildup) and October lines up at some point middle to late for live BPs like pitchers do when they come to spring training.
“The question is whether to do those then (in October) or do them in November but make sure he has enough shutdown time before the start of the following year. This has been on our radar as something to talk about since spring training.”
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Plunkett reported Ohtani has thrown off a mound six times in his rehab, going to a maximum of 30 throws. He threw off a mound on three consecutive days for the first time earlier this week.
Still, Ohtani wouldn’t completely close the door on pitching in a game in 2024.
When asked if he thought he could pitch during this year’s playoffs, a smiling Ohtani said in Japanese “I am not sure.”
A two-time AL MVP as a two-way player for the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani, 30, signed a 10-year, $700-million deal with the Dodgers prior to this season.
Watch Ohtani and the Dodgers face the Colorado Rockies on Friday at 10:10 p.m. ET / 7:10 p.m. PT on Sportsnet+.
