PHILADELPHIA — Shohei Ohtani threw a 26-pitch bullpen session forward of Saturday’s sport towards the Phillies, persevering with his buildup towards an eventual return to the mound. The timeline for Ohtani to return as a pitcher is to be decided.
Ohtani nonetheless is not throwing his total pitch combine, however pitching coach Mark Prior mentioned he combined in a few splitters for the primary time since pausing his development on the mound to give attention to ramping up as a hitter forward of the season-opening Tokyo Collection.
Final Saturday, Ohtani threw his first bullpen session since Feb. 25. He had a lighter “touch-and-feel” session on the mound on Thursday earlier than his full one at Residents Financial institution Park, which is the anticipated weekly schedule he’ll comply with going ahead.
The crew remains to be slowplaying Ohtani’s return to the mound considerably, supervisor Dave Roberts acknowledged, however the intention is to have him throw on an everyday schedule.
“It is a week, however then there’s additionally the one in between, the place he touches the mound on a Thursday,” Roberts mentioned. “And I believe it is simply extra making an attempt to maintain him on the same seven-day program, and what the schedule would look [like] going out, and construct from there.”
Ohtani is coming off his second main proper elbow surgical procedure in September 2023, in addition to left shoulder surgical procedure final November that delayed his offseason work.
As soon as Ohtani returns to an enormous league mound, the Dodgers are planning to make use of a six-man rotation, which they’re going to have the ability to do with out being a person brief within the bullpen due to Ohtani’s two-way participant designation.
The Dodgers may have a greater sense of when Ohtani can be a part of the rotation as soon as he progresses to going through stay hitters — which he didn’t do throughout Spring Coaching — and there is no goal date for that milestone but. Roberts want to see Ohtani use his total pitch combine earlier than going through hitters, and throw north of 30 pitches in a bullpen session.
