The Los Angeles Dodgers are one of the best teams in Major League Baseball, but a depleted pitching staff has held back the team early this season.
The Dodgers’ pitching staff ranks in the bottom third in the league in ERA, with a 4.16, but the team has many pitchers injured, like Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. Luckily for Los Angeles, the offense has been elite this season and kept them afloat, scoring the second-most runs in the league.
Superstar Shohei Ohtani has been the focal point of the Dodgers’ offense and is nearing a return to the mound, but the Los Angeles Times’ Dylan Hernández reported they will take a ‘slow play’ approach as they ease him back into pitching.
“As encouraged as the team is with his progress and as desperate as the Dodgers are for one of their sidelined frontline starters to return, they will continue to slow play Ohtani’s return to the mound, according to a person familiar with the team’s thinking but not authorized to speak publicly,” Hernández wrote.
“The Dodgers could use Ohtani’s arm, but they absolutely need his bat, and they don’t plan on jeopardizing his offense by exposing him to any unnecessary risks on the mound. This isn’t to say Ohtani’s pitching comeback should be expedited. Whomever they have pitching, the Dodgers will have to score runs to win another World Series, and that starts with Ohtani. Before they unleash Ohtani the pitcher, they have to protect Ohtani the hitter.”
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Ohtani hasn’t pitched since August 2023, when he underwent right elbow surgery. Though he didn’t pitch in the 2024 MLB season, he still won the National League Most Valuable Player Award and has picked up right where he left off this season.
Ohtani is slashing .304/.398/1.053 with 17 home runs and 31 RBIs in only 48 games. He also has nine doubles and four triples. Though the Dodgers are looking forward to his return to pitching, they need to take their time so they don’t risk Ohtani, who remains one of the most valuable players in the league at the plate.
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