GLENDALE, Ariz. — Shohei Ohtani’s road back to two-way status is going to be complicated.
The three-time MVP’s full return to being baseball’s ‘unicorn’ most likely will not come until sometime in May. He is not expected to pitch in major-league games until then.
It won’t involve pitching in any Cactus League games. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that is not part of the plan to prepare Ohtani for a return to the mound following a second Tommy John surgery.
The Dodgers also do not plan to send Ohtani out on a minor-league injury rehabilitation assignment before he returns.
“There’s not going to be a rehab involved because obviously we need him to be active on the roster to take at-bats (as DH),” Roberts said.
Actually, Ohtani could remain on the Dodgers’ active roster while also rehabbing in the minor leagues. MLB changed the rule for two-way players when Ohtani was returning from his first Tommy John surgery in 2020, allowing the Angels at the time to place him on the injured list as a pitcher while still playing him at DH. That would have allowed him to pitch in minor-league games on a rehab assignment, but the COVID pandemic resulted in the cancellation of the minor-league season that year and Ohtani never pitched in the minors.
Ohtani said he expects to throw his first bullpen session of the spring “sometime this weekend.”
“It’s gonna be more about touching the slope,” he said through an interpreter. “I’m not sure what my intensity is going to be.”
As a hitter, Ohtani took batting practice on the field Wednesday and seemed to be swinging freely. Afterward, though, he said he still feels “just a limited range of motion” from the November surgery on his left shoulder.
“I do feel like there’s some discomfort that I have to still overcome,” Ohtani said. “It’s not really debilitating. I feel pretty good, almost getting there, to where I want it to be.
“I’ve gone through it with the elbow before (following surgery) and with the shoulder it’s a little bit more complicated. I do believe that’s the part that I have to be patient.”
Roberts said he plans to have a conversation with Ohtani about how his workload will change once he returns to pitching and hitting. The Angels often gave Ohtani days off before or after he pitched.
“I do think there’s going to be more off-days, as far as on the DH side,” Roberts said. “But I think, for me, we haven’t got there yet as far as what he’s comfortable with, what he feels good about. I’m looking forward to those conversations, but it’s obviously going to be a little more complex than it was last year.”
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