Shohei Ohtani Will Be Even More Valuable When He Pitches Again

The top home run hitter in the National League could soon be stopping others from following in his footsteps.

That’s because Shohei Ohtani, three-time Most Valuable Player and part-time pitcher, seems on the verge of joining the injury-riddled pitching rotation of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Ohtani, who last pitched for the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 23, 2023, has healed from both 2023 Tommy John elbow surgery and arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder, injured during a slide into second during Game 2 of the 2024 World Series.

Although the Dodgers have a commanding lead in the National League West title chase, they also have eight pitchers on the injury list. That’s down from 14, which was only recently.

Manager Dave Roberts has relied on bullpen games – relief pitchers starting and staying only an inning or two – and journeymen not ready for prime time. But none has the prowess or promise of Ohtani.

Multiple Skills

A right-handed pitcher but left-handed batter, Ohtani may have more skills than any man who ever played in the major leagues. He not only hits for power and average but also steals bases, as evidenced by his unprecedented 50/50 season in 2024.

The Los Angeles lead-off man, winner of consecutive MVP awards by unanimous vote, is also an accomplished starting pitcher.

Originally projected to return after the July 15 All-Star Game, Ohtani could come back sooner – after impressing Dodgers brass with three solid simulated innings in San Diego. He fanned six, walked one, and yielded only one hit while throwing 44 pitches – slightly less than half the number he would throw in a successful regular-season game.

Manager Dave Roberts, pitching coach Mark Prior, and other Dodger decision-makers said they liked what they saw.

They liked it so much, in fact, that Roberts admitted he would reconsider his May 29 statement that Ohtani would not pitch for the Dodgers before the All-Star Game. At the time, Roberts said the odds of that happening were “north of zero.”

Injured Pitchers

For big chunks of this season, the Dodgers have been unable to deploy such accomplished starters as Clayton Kershaw, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and heralded rookie Roki Sasaki, in addition to Ohtani. Kershaw, who recently returned from the sidelines, and Snell have five Cy Young Awards between them.

As a pitcher, Ohtani is 38-19 with a 3.01 earned run average. When he made a career-best 28 starts for the Angels in 2022, he went 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA and averaged 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings, best in the American League that season.

Although several pitchers won Cy Young and MVP trophies in the same season, no everyday regular has ever done it. Ohtani, in the lineup as a DH when not pitching, would be the first, although it’s unlikely this year because of his late return to the mound.

In eight seasons, he has a .282 average and 248 home runs, 54 of them in 2024 alone. He’s won Most Valuable Player awards three times in the last four years, enabling him to join Hall of Famer Frank Robinson as the only player to take the trophy in both leagues.

When Ohtani broke into the big leagues with the Angels in 2018, he immediately grabbed his first trophy: American League Rookie of the Year.

He has led his league in slugging and OPS three years in a row.

Ohtani’s charismatic personality has also been a plus in multi-ethnic Los Angeles, which has a large Japanese population and section of town called Little Tokyo.

The sale of Ohtani jerseys, bobbleheads, and other souvenirs has created a windfall for the team, justifying the player’s 10-year, $700 million contract, signed with the Dodgers on Dec. 11, 2023.
Except for $2 million per season, all of that money is deferred.

For the Dodgers, the payoff was instantaneous: Ohtani led the team to its first world championship since the virus-shortened 2020 campaign and its first in an uninterrupted season since 1988.

When he throws his first pitch for the Dodgers, he’ll merely be adding another dimension to a remarkable resume.