With only a couple exceptions mixed in, the Los Angeles Dodgers have largely kept Shohei Ohtani on a schedule of throwing a light bullpen session every Wednesday and fuller work off the mound on Saturdays.
The team has continued to closely monitor Ohtani’s throwing progression and exercise patience as he looks to return from a second Tommy John surgery. With that has come an open-ended timeline of when Ohtani will make his Dodgers pitching debut.
There are multiple steps that need to first be reached, and Ohtani crossed one of them off the list during his bullpen session at Chase Field on Saturday by simulating pitching in multiple innings.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts considered it a noteworthy step forward, per Sonja Chen of MLB.com
“It’s significant because it sort of simulates an up-down inning,” Roberts said. “To see how he comes out of it after taking, call it, five-to-seven minutes of rest, and to see how he responds.”
While Ohtani took a step forward in his progression, it still came without throwing a slider. Ohtani remains limited to throwing fastballs (two-seam, four-seam and cutter) in addition to his splitter in the bullpen sessions. He started incorporating splitters for the first time during a bullpen session on April 5.
When recently discussing his throwing schedule, Ohtani shared a hope to soon advance to facing batters. However, he also expressed an understanding with how cautious the Dodgers have been with handling his schedule.
The Dodgers won’t schedule Ohtani to pitch against batters until he first advances to throwing his entire pitch mix.
Shohei Ohtani pitching after All-Star break?
During the offseason, Roberts initially pointed to some time in May as when Ohtani would begin pitching for the Dodgers. But the target date eventually changed and the Dodgers have not publicly disclosed any timeline or expectation for when Ohtani will be back on the mound.
However, it appears that is not likely to take place until after the All-Star break.
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