Shohei Ohtani on track despite ‘complicated’ surgery
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani said he is “on schedule” in his attempt to return as a two-way player this season, despite what he described as a “complicated surgery” to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder.
Ohtani, who spoke at the Los Angeles Dodgers’ annual preseason fan event on Saturday at Dodger Stadium, initially injured his non-throwing shoulder while sliding in Game 2 of the World Series, then played the next three games and underwent surgery on Nov. 5, six days after helping to deliver a championship.
The torn labrum added another layer of complication to a pitching rehab that already consisted of a second repair of his ulnar collateral ligament, but the Dodgers expect Ohtani to hit by the start of the season — they’ll open in Japan on March 18 — and pitch in their rotation by May.
“And it might be earlier,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Ohtani, who underwent his most recent elbow surgery in September 2023, threw multiple bullpen sessions before the Dodgers’ postseason run last fall and started playing catch again in December. But he has yet to get on a mound this offseason, which makes it difficult to pinpoint a return to pitching.
“I think the biggest determinant is going to be when I first pitch my bullpen,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “Then I think we’re going to really get a feel for when I’ll be able to be on a big league mound.”
When he does, Ohtani will join arguably the deepest, most talented rotation in the sport. And before then, he’ll lead arguably the deepest, most talented lineup in the sport.
His presence now symbolizes the Dodgers’ elevation into another financial stratosphere.
Since signing Ohtani to a highly deferred 10-year, $700 million contract in December 2023, the Dodgers have added practically every player they’ve wanted. Two front-of-the-rotation starters, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and a slugging corner outfielder, Teoscar Hernandez, joined within four weeks of Ohtani’s deal.
This offseason, after securing their first full-season title since 1988, the Dodgers signed starter Blake Snell, extended utility man Tommy Edman, brought back Hernandez, added outfielder Michael Conforto, struck a deal with infielder Hyeseong Kim, convinced pitching prodigy Roki Sasaki to join them and inked Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates to round out what was already a deep bullpen.
“The crazy part is you’re thinking like, once we sign someone, ‘OK, that’s it.’ Then we sign another guy and it’s like, ‘OK that’s it.’ And it just keeps going,” Snell said. “To see how invested they are in us winning, investing in the best team they can possibly assemble, it’s pretty special.”
A winter that saw the Dodgers splurge for more than $1.2 billion was followed by them committing nearly $450 million on seven players, with longtime ace Clayton Kershaw and popular utility man Enrique Hernandez still expected to be added at some point. Their 2025 competitive-balance-tax payroll projects to $380 million, according to Spotrac, well above the highest luxury tax threshold and roughly $80 million more than the second-place Philadelphia Phillies.
