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A month ago, Dave Roberts was asked if the Hope of the Dodgers was that Shohei Ohtani was back in the team’s Tipping Rotation by May this season.
“I think it’s almost correct, yes,” replied the manager, speaking on February 1 at the club fan fest of the club. “And it could be earlier.”
Quick advance until Thursday, however, and Roberts’ answer to the same question had changed considerably.
While Ohtani, the double -meaning star that missed all last season as a launcher by recovering from Tommy John surgery, continued to play Catch regularly on the Dodgers camp this week, the right -hander has not launched its enclosure session since February 25.
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According to Roberts, it was a collective decision and precaution; Intended to prevent the MVP of the riding national league, which also underwent surgery on its left shoulder not launched this offseason to repair a torn labrum, from the over-tax of its body while it is prepared for the opening day as a designated striker.
“We just considered that to intensify the arenas, alongside the intensity of the games, was not intelligent,” said Roberts. “So we just wanted to play it slow.”
But, therefore, the calendar for Ohtani to return to pitch in the majors is now much less clear than in the spring.
“I just feel, and we all feel, [we’re] I’m just trying to do a wide moment to come back, “said Roberts on Thursday when asked if May was still the club’s goal to bring Ohtani back to the mound. “We just don’t know. So I think that when it is ready … We will know it. But I don’t want to put expectations on you guys or shohei.
Development, in itself, was not a cause of alarm.
All the offseason, the team reported that it would be prudent with the rehabilitation of ohtani pitching, which has been continuing since he suffered his second Tommy John surgery in September 2023.
Their objective has long been to have it at full power at the end of the season, hoping to maximize its enticing double -meaning talents for the section of the regular season and in the playoffs.
“It’s very, a little nuanced with him,” said Roberts. “Just trying to make sure we don’t want to push something that we don’t need.”
However, given the intense anticipation for the return of Ohtani to double -meaning tasks (and a history of checkered injuries which limited it to only three seasons of MLB of more than 10 departures as a launcher), any delay in the launch program of Ohtani is a notable development.
During the first three weeks of the spring camp, Ohtani launched four separate sessions of lifts, in addition to regular capture game sessions in the outside field. After the fourth enclosure of the surveys, Roberts pointed out on the apparently “transparent” progress that Ohtani made, saying that it was “very surprised at the speed with which he passed” given the two surgeries that Ohtani suffered the previous and a half year.
But after this enclosure of the lifts of February 25 – in which Ohtani launched only four seams, two seams and cuts the fast balls while reincorporating a liquidation in its delivery – Ohtani and the Dodgers decided to “give it a little respite for rehabilitation”, declared Roberts, “and to slow it down” with its starts of Cactus League scheduled for February 28.
“In fact, this has somehow produced by the conversation with Shohei, our training staff, the doctors,” added Roberts. “So all of this was synchronized.”
Ohtani looks lively on the plate. He hit a circuit during his first blow to the spring stick. He collected at least a safe blow in the four games he played. And he took four at-bats in a competition for the first time on Thursday, recording his first multi-1 camp performance during the 8-4 Dodgers victory against the Texas Rangers.
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“Really good,” said Roberts about the Ohtani match on Thursday, in which the first round doubled and chose the sixth. “Shohei is in a good place.”
As a striker, Ohtani will continue to add to his workload before the team left on Wednesday for his season opening trip to Japan. He must play again on Saturday, then will do consecutive departures for the first time this spring on Monday and Tuesday.
As a launcher, however, his calendar to resume the arenas, starting to face the strikers or possibly returning to a regular season action has become much less certain.
“It makes sense, because it is really preparing on the offensive side, and has been operated on, and also appreciating the fact that he underwent surgery on his left shoulder this offseason,” said Roberts, trying to minimize all the more important concerns concerning Ohtani’s evolution plan on the mound.
“”[The plan] is to go up it, ”added Roberts. But, “I don’t know when it is.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
