The Los Angeles Dodgers have enjoyed a historic debut season from their biggest star.
After the Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani to the largest contract in sports history, he has recorded Major League Baseball’s first-ever 50/50 season, has led the team to baseball’s best record and is headed toward his third-career Most Valuable Player Award. And he’s accomplished all of this while taking the year off from pitching, a skillset that makes him the most talented baseball player in history.
In August 2023, after racking up 167 strikeouts in 132 innings for the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani injured an elbow ligament and he’s spent this season rehabbing his throwing arm as he plays designated hitter for the Dodgers. Now, as the team makes a final push toward the playoffs, Ohtani has reached a critical juncture in that rehab with a decision on how to proceed looming.
“Dodgers will meet with Shohei Ohtani and the training staff sometime soon to discuss next steps for him,” Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reported. “They’re in a ‘fork in the road’ about whether it’s best to rest him for next year or continue to eventually face hitters, Dave Roberts said.”
Roberts, the Dodgers manager, recently downplayed the idea that Ohtani might be ready to face batters as a reliever if the team advances deep into the playoffs. But they can still hope for an impactful return to the mound for the two-way superstar in 2025. He has a career 3.01 ERA in 86 career starts in his five-year MLB career, making him one of the game’s most effective hurlers over that span.
The decision to advance Ohtani’s rehab by involving live hitters seems like it could accelerate that return. Though the temptation to rest the superstar, particularly as he continues to carry a significant offensive role in the Dodgers’ World Series aspirations this season, is understandable as well.
Regardless of which direction the Dodgers and Ohtani decide to take, they seem committed to unlocking his value as an unprecedented two-way superstar sooner or later.
“The bottom line is this is what he wants to do,” Roberts told ESPN, of Ohtani’s desire to pitch and hit. “If this is what he believes he can do at an elite level, and he makes our team better, I don’t see the downside.”
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