Dodgers expect Shohei Ohtani to be ready to hit for opener in Japan, but not be on the mound

AP Baseball Writer

DALLAS (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers expect Shohei Ohtani to be ready to hit when the reigning World Series champions open their season in Japan against the Chicago Cubs on March 18 and 19.

“I don’t think he’d have it any other way,” manager Dave Roberts said Monday of the NL MVP who had left shoulder surgery last month. “That’s our expectation.”

Coming off his third MVP award, Ohtani is doubtful to pitch while recovering from right elbow surgery in September 2023. Roberts said a mound appearance for the two-way star in his home country is “very unlikely.”

“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 during the winter meetings. “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 had surgery Nov. 5 to repair a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder, an injury the 30-year-old sustained while sliding during a stolen base attempt in Game 2 of the World Series on Oct. 26. He didn’t pitch at all during the first season of his $700 million, 10-year deal with the Dodgers while recovering from surgery on the elbow, which also previously underwent Tommy John surgery in October 2018.

A unanimous National League MVP after becoming the first player with at least 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in a season, Ohtani surely wants to be in the lineup in Japan.

“It’s not cemented. If something doesn’t look right, feel right, obviously we’ve got to pivot. Maybe a lot of disappointed fans,” Roberts said. “We’re going to do what’s best for Shohei. But where we stand right now, I expect him to play.”

Roberts doesn’t believe the recent surgery on the left shoulder is going to have much of an impact on Ohtani pitching.

“His right elbow is the biggest factor. I just think the question is when he starts pitching in major league games and how we build him up prior to,” Roberts said. “I don’t see it as a minor league rehab situation, but I don’t know. I think it’s a conversation that once we sort of get closer, we’ll figure out. That’s going to be … we’ve got to kind of be nimble with that one.”

After his elbow surgery at the end of his MLB rookie season in 2018, Ohtani didn’t pitch again until two starts early in the COVID-delayed 2020 season that didn’t start until that July.

The Dodgers manager said he hasn’t yet put a lot of thought into how Ohtani will have to manage things on a day-to-day basis when hitting and pitching full-time again after another surgery.

“It’s going to be interesting, because the continued, not necessarily rehab with the left shoulder, but keeping it strong, maintaining it … within the overall body stuff. And 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,” Roberts said. “I guess if anyone can manage it, it’s Shohei. He doesn’t waste much time when he’s at the ballpark. But it’s certainly going to look a lot different.”

Roberts’ trip to Japan

The 52-year-old Roberts, who was born in Japan, just returned over the weekend from a seven-day trip there that he characterized as personal business and a family vacation. He said it was first time he had been back there in about 20 years.

Roberts met with Ohtani’s former manager — even sending a photo of the two together to Ohtani — and also sat down with 84-year-old Sadaharu Oh, who hit 868 homers for the Yomiuri Giants from 1959-80.

“I think honestly having a conversation with Sadaharu Oh was absolutely insane,” Roberts said. “Obviously we were talking hitting. Obviously he’s a huge fan of Shohei. It was just .. I told him, I always thought he was a figment of my imagination. I never really believed that Sadaharu Oh existed until I saw him and put eyes on him.”

Before going to Japan, Roberts got a text from Ohtani telling him to be ready to see a lot of pictures of the two-way star.

“He was right,” said Roberts, who got recognized plenty himself. “More than in Los Angeles. It’s pretty bananas.”

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