Shohei Ohtani starting on the mound against the Detroit Tigers on Sunday is a possibility the Los Angeles Dodgers are considering, although nothing has been finalized.
The right-hander faced hitters at Dodger Stadium last Saturday in what was a significant step toward returning to the mound. The final phase standing between Ohtani and a full return to pitching is now a de facto rehab assignment.
The Dodgers will use the same strategy as last season, allowing the 32-year-old to complete his rehab starts against Major League competition, but expect a quicker pace this time around.
“I would say it will be a little bit more aggressive,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
There was a tiered approach to working Ohtani back into the rotation in 2025, as he did not complete more than three innings in a single outing until his eighth start of the season.
There remains enough time left this season for Ohtani to make four starts, maybe five if the Dodgers push him, before the playoffs begin. If the team increases the right-hander’s workload by an inning in each start, that would build him up enough to handle around a five-inning workload come October.
Roberts agreed that scenario is theoretically possible.
The decision to loosen Ohtani’s guardrails makes a lot of sense from the team’s point of view. It had been multiple years since he last pitched in a Major League game back in 2025, and Ohtani had been rehabbing from his second career right elbow surgery.
Still, there is a lot of information to be gathered in the final month that could affect the Dodgers’ postseason decisions.
The Dodgers theoretically have enough arms that they would not need Ohtani to start a game, especially in the early rounds, when teams can get by with a three-man rotation.
Avoiding the Wild Card round would extend Ohtani’s window to get back to full strength. But even if the Dodgers do not play until the National League Division Series, the trio of Tarik Skubal, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell is more than capable of handling a five-game series.
There is also the question of how Ohtani looks on the mound in this final month of the season.
At the end of the day, the decision of who will start postseason games early on comes down to who the Dodgers believe gives them the best chance to win, and there are still too many unknowns at the moment to know what choice will be made.
Dodgers don’t anticipate Shohei Ohtani needing surgery
As for what happens after the season, Ohtani raised questions when he suggested he might need a procedure on his knee.
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and manager Dave Roberts were both caught off guard by the comments and stated their belief that surgery is not in the plans for Ohtani after the season.
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