Shohei Ohtani’s return to pitching remains uncertain, as Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters in Detroit Saturday, Aug. 29 that the two-way superstar is “not 100%” and cut a bullpen session short a day earlier due to “overall body” considerations.
Ohtani has not pitched since July 3 due largely to left knee soreness, but he is also battling a right biceps issue, both conspiring to truncate a pitching campaign that saw him post a 0.74 ERA through his first 10 starts and a 1.79 mark over 14 outings.
Since Ohtani last pitched, the Dodgers acquired two-time American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Tigers, which greatly lessened Ohtani’s urgency to return to the mound. They’ve also regained lefty Blake Snell and right-hander Tyler Glasnow from the injured list, all following No. 1 starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
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No. 10. T-Mobile Park, Seattle: This ballpark fits perfectly in the Northwest with the nearby mountains, skyline and water. It features an “umbrella-style” retractable roof that doesn’t enclose the park, only stopping the rain, while enabling fans to enjoy the beautiful outdoors.
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No. 10. T-Mobile Park, Seattle: This ballpark fits perfectly in the Northwest with the nearby mountains, skyline and water. It features an “umbrella-style” retractable roof that doesn’t enclose the park, only stopping the rain, while enabling fans to enjoy the beautiful outdoors.
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No. 9. Camden Yards, Baltimore: Meet the godfather, with its famous B&O Warehouse. This is the original retro-classic ballpark that not only dramatically influenced the look of new stadiums, but changed the fabric of some major cities. Denver, Cleveland, San Francisco and San Diego followed its lead and built downtown ballparks that completely invigorated growth.
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No. 8. Coors Field, Denver: The team may stink but the ballpark is so beautiful and the vibe is so cool that it’s become a destination on its own. There’s a purple row of seats signifying the mile-high altitude, and the bullpen could be mistaken for a forest with its trees and running stream. The right-field upper-deck is the hottest bar in Denver.
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No. 7. Dodgers Stadium, Los Angeles: This is the most serene setting in baseball, nestled into the hillside of Chavez Ravine. It has a view of the San Gabriel Mountains beyond the outfield, and downtown Los Angeles behind home plate. It’s hard to believe it was built in 1962 and even though it holds 56,000 fans, it still feels intimate.
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No. 6. Oracle Park, San Francisco: This ballpark has the second-best view in baseball behind PNC Park with its bay backdrop and splash-down hits in McCovey Cove, but only if you happen to sit in the upper deck. The park is already showing its age and its concourses are narrow and cramped, making it difficult to move around, with the Giants already out-growing the place and badly needing more space.
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No. 5. Petco Park, San Diego: This gorgeous park doesn’t quite have the stunning views as Pittsburgh or San Francisco, but it’s pretty darn close. The architecture is beautiful and the old Western Metal Company warehouse in left-field gives it a retro look. It also happens to be located in the heart of the lively Gaslamp Quarter in downtown San Diego.
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No. 4. Target Field, Minneapolis: This may be the most impressive urban design in baseball on its downtown eight-acre site with freeways and trains outside the park, and warehouses to the left. It also has an ultra-modern look inside, with a 360-degree open concourse, that celebrates the club’s glorious history. Its nod to the retro look is the iconic neon Minnie and Paul home-run sign featuring two ballplayers shaking hands over the Mississippi River representing the Twin Cities.
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No 3. PNC Park, Pittsburgh: The most gorgeous ballpark in America. Forget the game on the field. You want to be sitting in the upper deck taking in the view of the Clemente Bridge, the Pittsburgh skyline and the Allegheny River. It’s magnificent.
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No. 2. Wrigley Field, Chicago: There’s not a more beautiful sight than walking into the ballpark and taking your first look at that beautiful green grass, the ivy on the walls and the iconic scoreboard in center field. Taking in a Friday afternoon game, hitting Murphy Bleachers afterward, and enjoying the Chicago nightlife is utopia for any baseball fan.
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No. 1 Fenway Park, Boston: No ballpark in America has the romantic feel or the unique quirks of Fenway Park, from the Green Monster to Pesky’s Pole. It’s not a baseball game, but a religious experience watching games at Fenway.
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So the Dodgers, for now, have enviable pitching depth. In a sense, their approach now differs very little from 2025. That’s when Ohtani was making his full-season pitching return from Tommy John surgery and L.A. slow-played his recovery in an almost ideal fashion, setting him up for postseason heroics on both sides of the ball.
Yet the vibes are different this year. Roberts acknowledged Saturday that Ohtani, like many pitchers, may not feel 100% the rest of the season. That carries greater implications for the Dodgers, since pitching-created discomfort can in almost any case affect him as a hitter, as well.
“That’s the hard part right now,” Roberts told reporters, “is trying to figure out if he’s not 100%, overall body, is it worth giving him an inning to build up or not? So I think that that’s kind of where we’re at right now, trying to weigh the positives and negatives.”
It seems likely Ohtani will return in an opener or limited-inning role, if only to test his body without subjecting it to the rigors of throwing upward of 50 to 100 pitches. And if he is, in fact, limited physically the rest of the season, a relief or opener role might be his most viable role come the postseason, as well.
The only guarantee is that Ohtani the two-way player is almost certain to look different this October than last.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Shohei Ohtani’s return, role for rest of season once again in doubt
