'Possibly better than he was before': Shohei Ohtani's road back to pitching has impressed Dodgers (2024)

LOS ANGELES -- A throng of camera operators, photographers and reporters gathered near Dodger Stadium's left-field line Monday as Shohei Ohtani played what amounted to an intense game of catch. His throws came from a standstill position, a wide-legged stance, a crowhop and a leg kick, 71 in total. Thomas Albert, the Los Angeles Dodgers' head athletic trainer, tracked them all with a pocket radar.

As he has progressed through his rehabilitation as a pitcher, Ohtani has begun to try and guess the precise velocity of his throws.

"He's usually pretty close," Albert said, "if not spot on."

It's easy to forget, while he navigates what might go down as the greatest season ever by a designated hitter, that there's a whole other half to Ohtani still waiting to be unlocked. The reminders have come subtly yet continually, every other day over these past four months, when he takes a break from his current job to prepare for his future one.

Ohtani is attempting to not only return as a two-way player, but to do so in the wake of a second major elbow surgery, a circ*mstance few pitchers overcome. Before that happens, he might just win an MVP.

"He's one of one," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "A unicorn."

A process that began with soft tosses from no more than 30 feet away in late March has seen Ohtani progress to throwing from 150 feet at 85% intensity. His program will soon grow from three days a week to four, then five. By early September, Ohtani could start throwing off a mound again. Ahead of the playoffs, the hope is he can briefly face hitters in some capacity, be it through live batting practice or in a one- to two-inning simulated game, before shutting it down and restarting in the offseason.

Only seven and a half weeks remain in the 2024 regular season, and Ohtani is on track to become the first full-time DH to win an MVP. The sixth 40-40 season in baseball history seems likely. The Triple Crown looks possible. Ohtani is tied for the National League lead in batting average (.302), leads in home runs (34) and ranks second in RBIs (81, just five shy of Marcell Ozuna). He's also first in OPS (1.008), third in stolen bases (32) and first in FanGraphs wins above replacement (5.7). In some ways, he is also a victim of his own success.

Ohtani's offensive exploits have prompted many to wonder whether his two-way aspirations are still worth it -- whether he should instead focus solely on hitting, perhaps relearn the outfield along the way, and scrap pitching altogether. He has already proven he can do it -- why risk further injury? Why entertain the possibility of limiting himself at a skill that, on its own, already makes him exceptional?

It's a notion Dodgers officials scoff at.

"His ability to do both brings exponential value," general manager Brandon Gomes argued. "So let's just say the offensive side takes a small step back -- that's still so valuable, that he can do both. Oh, and by the way, if his offense takes a step back, it's still MVP-caliber offense. Yes, he's had an amazing season. But the ability to do both is somehow still completely underappreciated."

Ohtani accumulated 26.1 fWAR during the three-year stretch from 2021 to 2023 in which he pitched and hit simultaneously, generating nearly five more wins than the next-closest player, Aaron Judge -- the only one who prevented him from winning three consecutive MVPs. He slashed .277/.379/.585 with 124 home runs and 57 stolen bases in 447 games, but he also posted a 2.84 ERA and struck out 542 batters in 428⅓ innings.

Roberts pointed to that combination, highlighted by the fact that Ohtani led the majors with a 1.066 OPS in a two-way role last year, as proof that his pursuit is worth the trouble.

"The bottom line is this is what he wants to do," Roberts said. "If this is what he believes that he can do at an elite level, and he makes our team better, I don't see the downside."

The list of players who have undergone multiple repairs of their ulnar collateral ligaments is long and growing rapidly. A database organized by baseball analyst Jon Roegele, who has cataloged every UCL repair dating back nearly 50 years, lists 157 players who have undergone Tommy John surgery on multiple occasions. (Not included is Ohtani, whose second elbow surgery -- on Sept. 19, nearly five years after he underwent traditional Tommy John surgery -- was widely considered an internal bracing procedure.)

There are success stories -- Nathan Eovaldi and Jameson Taillon chief among them -- and many others whose careers never fully recovered. But a quickly evolving medical landscape is seeing better success rates with hybrid procedures, which have become increasingly more popular. Ohtani is part of the latest crop -- alongside the likes of Jacob deGrom, Shane McClanahan and fellow Dodger Walker Buehler -- who might help shape the success rate of multiple UCL repairs.

His most recent tear occurred in the lower extremity of his UCL, closer to the forearm, according to his agent, Nez Balelo. Dr. Keith Meister, a noted orthopedic surgeon who has not reviewed Ohtani's medicals, said recurrent tears occur far less frequently on the lower side of the ligament but are generally "more favorable to repair or revise," perhaps because of the structure of the UCL and the increased blood supply in the area.

It might be why Ohtani was able to come back to hitting by Opening Day, barely six months after surgery. And it's partly why the Dodgers, who signed Ohtani to a record-breaking 10-year, $700 million contract in December, are hopeful about his two-way future.

"If he gets back to even 90% of the version that he was beforehand," Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said, "it's only a win for us."

Prior has yet to get fully involved in Ohtani's rehab, but the Dodgers' training staff, pitching coaches and medical personnel recently began mapping out a potential schedule. Ohtani is playing every day, which limits the amount of rehab he can take on. Because he won't begin throwing off a mound at full intensity until late in the season, it's also difficult to determine how much time off he should get before starting his offseason buildup. A tight window -- prompted by a potential deep playoff run to finish 2024 and, with the Dodgers opening in Japan on March 18, an early start to 2025 -- further complicates matters.

"Even if guys have gone through an entire rehab, you want them to get an entire offseason to kind of get that blow and build up from there," Prior said. "But that's going to be a question that we have to work through. What does that look like? Do you get to a certain point, shut him down, try to get a little bit of rest, but then we got to ramp him back up? Do you try to carry it through with some sort of minimal effort? Those are the unknowns that we have with somebody in his situation."

One certainty, the Dodgers have continually said: Ohtani will not pitch for them in the playoffs.

"When we have a guy for 10 years, I just don't see the upside," Roberts said Tuesday. "The risk-reward doesn't make sense."

Ohtani has already been a two-way star longer than Babe Ruth, who tried it more than 100 years ago and barely lasted two seasons. The odds of him continuing as a hitter and a pitcher for what remains of his career seem exceedingly low, largely because his only precedent no longer applies.

The more the Dodgers see from Ohtani, the more firmly they seem to believe he can do the impossible -- not just because of his talent, but because of how he augments it.

When Ohtani worked out at the Dodgers' spring training complex in Glendale, Arizona, in early February, he treated every drill with game-like intensity. Every batting practice swing was methodical and calculated, right down to his breathing patterns in between. At one point he noticed the batter's boxes spray-painted onto the mat did not match the dimensions of Dodger Stadium's, so he asked that they be changed. If the batting tee was a half-inch too low, or the "L" screen was a foot too close, he noticed that too. They quickly learned his attention to detail was unlike any others.

Said Gomes: "Everything he does is on a whole other level of focus."

Ohtani has attacked his rehabilitation as a pitcher with the same intensity, no matter how menial the task. Every step has a purpose. Every move is meticulous. Every throw matters.

"That's what makes him great," Albert said. "Shohei is, if not one of, the best to ever do it. Him coming back successfully, possibly better than he was before, is not far-fetched."