For therefore lengthy, the most important query surrounding Shohei Ohtani’s future as a pitcher was easy.
When, after a second profession Tommy John surgical procedure, would he lastly get again on the mound? When, after a yr and a half of solely hitting, would he be capable to resume two-way duties?
This previous week, that reply lastly arrived.
Twice in seven days, Ohtani climbed the bump because the Dodgers’ starter, throwing one inning in every outing in his long-awaited return to pitching.
Each occasions, he left his teammates and coaches in astonished amazement, giving them their first up-close glimpse of his dual-role skillset.
“I’ve seen [him throw] bullpens and lives and simulated games, or whatever,” supervisor Dave Roberts stated Sunday. “But to kind of watch it in real time, to go from the mound to the on-deck circle and then go to the batter’s box, it’s pretty remarkable. And he’s just handling it the right way. He’s just unflappable.”
What comes subsequent, nevertheless, stays shrouded in some uncertainty.
Now that Ohtani is once more pitching in live-game motion, new questions are lingering about the place his build-up will go from right here.
“It’s going to be a gradual process,” Ohtani stated by interpreter Will Ireton on Sunday. “I want to see improvements with the quality of the pitches that I’m throwing, and then also increasing the amount of pitches. So it’s going to be gradual.”
It was no shock that, in Ohtani’s return to pitching on June 16, he was restricted to just one inning. It was a trade-off he and the staff made to get him again into an actual sport sooner, agreeing to present him a stay begin even when they knew it wouldn’t prolong previous one inning.
Getting into Ohtani’s second begin on Sunday afternoon, nevertheless, the considering was that the right-hander may very well be able to push into the second — that, to finally get stretched out for full-length begins, he would start build up his workload by including one other inning every trip.
The best way Ohtani pitched Sunday actually warranted a second inning.
After giving up two hits and one run over a 28-pitch outing towards the San Diego Padres six days prior, he collected two strikeouts in a scoreless 18-pitch inning towards the Washington Nationals, his solely baserunner reaching on a dropped pop fly by shortstop Mookie Betts.
“Overall, I was able to relax much better compared to my last outing,” Ohtani stated. “The way my body moves when I pitch, it’s something that I worked on with the pitching coaches and I felt a lot better this time.”
Nonetheless, within the high of the second, Ohtani was as soon as once more changed on the rubber. Regardless of his improved execution and effectivity, it turned out he and the staff had made a predetermined determination to not push him for a second inning fairly but.
“That was the original plan,” Ohtani stated of being eliminated after the primary.
“Going into today’s game,” Roberts added, “we felt really comfortable with one.”
It hammered house the truth of what lies forward for Ohtani; the cautious, methodical and, as Roberts additionally described it, “gradual” tempo with which the staff will deal with his pitching workload in the intervening time.
“I think that it’s more of just trying to get the foundation, the building blocks as he’s [pitching and] taking at-bats,” Roberts stated. “[We are] erring on the side of caution … There’s no sense in rushing it right now.”
As Ohtani returns to pitching, there are new elements the Dodgers should monitor in his all-around efficiency.
Already, the reigning MVP has minimize down on his base-stealing whereas ramping up as a pitcher: After swiping 11 luggage in his first 50 video games, he hasn’t even tried a steal since throwing his first stay batting observe session on Might 25.
His place within the leadoff spot may very well be altered on days he pitches as nicely, with Roberts leaving open the potential of transferring him down within the batting order to present him extra time to transition from pitcher to hitter (at the least within the first inning of house video games, when he at the moment has to hustle from the mound to the plate after the highest half of the body).
Then, there may be maybe the most important query: Whether or not the burden of pitching will have an effect on Ohtani’s all-important manufacturing with the bat?
That dynamic got here beneath scrutiny this week, after Ohtani went simply two for 19 within the 5 video games following his first pitching begin.
“I don’t think that’s a fatigue thing,” Roberts insisted Sunday morning. “But we’ll manage it. I can only take him at his word, and the swing speed and all the stuff we sort of track is still in line.”
Ohtani did snap that hunch after his inning on the mound Sunday, ending the day with a three-run triple within the seventh and two-run house run within the eighth.
“I do feel like I do have to work on some things,” Ohtani stated. “But at the same time, I do feel like I can perform better, even better than I used to be able to perform at.”
All of that is to say, whereas Ohtani has mastered his two-way position earlier than (twice profitable American League MVP whereas doing it with the Angels), the Dodgers are taking nothing without any consideration about his pitching comeback proper now.
Earlier than they start including to his pitching workload, they need to ensure they’ve accounted for any unintended unwanted effects.
“All these conversations we have with him, obviously,” Roberts stated. “He’s understanding of where he’s at, where we’re at, and appreciating the fact that as time goes on, we’ll get to a certain point.”
Earlier than Sunday’s sport, Roberts didn’t even commit to completely stretching out Ohtani like a conventional starter by the second half of the season.
“That’s kind of TBD,” he stated when requested when Ohtani could be totally built-up for normal-length begins. “I think we’re always gonna be cautious. So I don’t even know what that’s going to look like, to be ‘fully built-up.’ I don’t think anyone knows what that looks like. Because it’s not a normal starting pitcher. So to say six [innings] and 90 [pitches], I don’t even know if we’ll get to that point.”
May that imply utilizing Ohtani as solely a glorified opener for the remainder of this season? Or stretching him out provided that a at the moment shorthanded rotation doesn’t finally get wholesome?
Time should inform on these questions, with neither the Dodgers nor Ohtani able to decide to any solutions till they see how he continues to answer his return to two-way duties.
“As we build more of a foundation, there will be some latitude,” Roberts stated. “I think that we’re still gathering [information]. But again, once we ramp up more, it might be a different conversation.”
