Los Angeles Dodgers celebrity Shohei Ohtani will make his long-awaited return to the mound on Monday night time towards the San Diego Padres (GameTracker). Ohtani’s outing will characterize his first since Aug. 23, 2023, again when he was nonetheless a member of the Los Angeles Angels. He is since trekked by means of plenty of milestones, together with however not restricted to: present process a number of surgical procedures, becoming a member of a brand new crew, profitable a World Collection title, and seeing his spouse give beginning.
Certainly, it has been 664 days because the final time Ohtani took a mound in a recreation. In case all that point and house has prompted anybody to neglect: he is fairly good at pitching, too. Over the course of 86 MLB video games and 481 ⅔ innings, he is amassed a 3.01 ERA (142 ERA+) and a 3.51 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He completed fourth in American League Cy Younger Award consideration again in 2022, and he is compiled an estimated 15 Wins Above Substitute as a pitcher, per Baseball Reference.
Dodgers vs. Padres: The place to observe
Time: 10:10 p.m. ET | Date: Monday, June 16
Location: Dodger Stadium — Los Angeles
TV channel: MLB Community (nationwide) | Dwell stream: fubo (Attempt at no cost)
Odds (by way of Caesars Sportsbook): LAD -170, SD +143, O/U 9
For extra on what Ohtani’s rehab appeared like and the way his return impacts the Dodgers’ pitching workers, amongst different worthwhile factors, let’s flip to our useful dandy issues to know format.
1. Hitting duties altered rehab
If Ohtani’s rehab felt prefer it took longer than common, there is a good cause for that. Most pitchers would’ve undergone elbow surgical procedure on Sept. 19, 2023, and thereafter devoted their total being to recovering from the operation. Not Ohtani. Though his 2023 season was over by then (on account of a separate indirect damage), he signed with the Dodgers that offseason as a free agent and has since appeared as a chosen hitter in 229 of Los Angeles’ 234 video games.
Predictably, maybe, Ohtani has fared fairly effectively. He is batted .306/.391/.645 (189 OPS+) with 79 dwelling runs, 70 stolen bases, and 12.8 Wins Above Substitute. He even received his second consecutive MVP award final fall (albeit his first of the Nationwide League selection). Nonetheless, Ohtani paid a tax on his fixed presence: a slowed-down rehab course of.
“We simply felt that to accentuate the bullpens alongside of the depth of the video games (as DH) wasn’t good,” manager Dave Roberts said in the spring. “So we simply wished to form of slow-play it.”
Ohtani’s rehab was additionally impacted by the left shoulder damage he sustained as a part of final yr’s World Collection. He required surgical procedure to restore a torn labrum, additional delaying his return to pitching.
2. First look will not be conventional begin
Do not count on Ohtani to work deep into Monday’s recreation. Slightly, it could be useful to consider him as extra of an opener.
Ohtani’s final bullpen session noticed him throw 50 pitches in a simulated recreation vogue: 25 minutes, a quick break resembling the Dodgers’ offensive half of the inning, after which 25 extra pitches. The chances are the Dodgers will err on the conservative aspect as they steadily add to his workload.
One side that works within the Dodgers’ favor right here: Ohtani’s two-way participant standing. He does not rely towards Los Angeles’ 13-pitcher roster restrict, that means that the Dodgers will be capable of navigate his truncated appearances with a full help workers.
3. Arsenal refresher
It is to be seen what, precisely, Ohtani’s arsenal appears like on Monday night time. It is potential that his velocity is not fairly the identical, or that the Dodgers have requested him to tinker with this or that pitch form to additional optimize his recreation. (Now there is a scary thought.) Regardless of the case, what we will do is keep in mind what his repertoire appeared just like the final time he took the mound.
Again in 2023, Ohtani threw six completely different pitches with any regularity: a four-seam fastball, sweeper, cutter, sinker, splitter, and curveball. His fastball averaged 96.8 mph and featured extra lower than the standard four-seamer because of his supinator motor desire — a flowery method of claiming that he is extra prone to pitch across the ball than instantly behind it. Listed below are another facets price remembering about Ohtani’s arsenal as you put together to observe him once more on Monday:
- Most popular first pitch: Sweeper
- Most popular two-strike pitch: Sweeper
- Finest bat-misser: Curveball
- Finest barrel-misser: Splitter
Once more, we’ll need to see if and the way Ohtani’s arsenal has modified within the almost two years since his final look.
4. State of Dodgers pitching workers
Even a restricted Ohtani ought to be a welcomed increase for a banged-up Dodgers workers. Coming into Monday, the Dodgers are down eight injured starters and 6 injured relievers. That features Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell , and Roki Sasaki, amongst others we cannot checklist right here for brevity’s sake. (Sasaki’s shoulder impingement, by the way, sounds like it could limit him as an option for the rest of 2025.)
On the brilliant aspect, reinforcements are on the way in which. Not simply within the personage of Ohtani, both. Glasnow and Snell have been throwing, and the Dodgers are anticipated to activate teenager Emmet Sheehan from the IL sooner or later this week, too.
Sheehan will not obtain as a lot fanfare as Ohtani — and for good cause — however it seems that issues are slowly, if absolutely beginning to development in the correct course for the Dodgers pitching workers.