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Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani likely won’t be ready to pitch for the Dodgers by Opening Day in Japan.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts broke the news to reporters at the baseball Winter Meetings on Monday, though he expected Ohtani to be in Los Angeles’ lineup as a designated hitter.
The Dodgers are opening their 2025 season with a two-game series against the Cubs at the Tokyo Dome beginning on March 18.
Roberts said it was “very unlikely” the two-way player would be ready to take the mound on Opening Day.
“I just don’t see us starting the clock in March to then think that we would keep that continuously going through October,” Roberts said, according to USA Today. “Then, that would call for a break or reprieve in the middle of the season, so I don’t know. I still think unlikely.”
Ohtani hasn’t pitched since 2023 when he was still with the Angels and underwent an elbow surgery in September of that year, which prevented him from pitching in his first year with the Dodgers.
The Dodgers superstar underwent a separate arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder last month.
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Los Angeles is preparing to be cautious with Ohtani once he does get back on the mound, Roberts said.
“It’s going to be interesting,’’ Roberts told reporters. “Because the continued rehab with the left shoulder, keeping it strong, maintaining it, maintenancing it within the overall body stuff. Then, the pitching regimen, the side sessions of pitching, to then be a part of hitters’ meetings and get ready, get ramped up to take at-bats as a DH.”
Ohtani is coming off a season where he hit .310 along with a league-leading.390 on-base percentage and a .646 slugging percentage.
The superstar won the MVP award unanimously and became the first player to hit at least 50 home runs (54) and steal 50 bases (59) in a season.
