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Shohei Ohtani is scheduled to face the batsman on Saturday for the first time in recovery from right elbow surgery.
The two-way superstar will throw live batting practice at Citifield before the Los Angeles Dodgers play for the New York Mets, manager Dave Roberts announced Friday.
Working to get back to the mound is the next step for Otani. He had surgery on September 19, 2023. He was his second major surgery on his right elbow since arriving in the majors and has not played in a big league game since August 23rd for the Los Angeles Angels.
“It’s progress. The progress of shoe hei,” Roberts said. “He doesn’t lean too much when it comes to emotions, but I don’t know he couldn’t feel like he was beginning to become more realistic.”
There are no goals yet for Otani’s pitching debut with the Dodgers, but predictions are expected to come in July.
“A lot of that will be conditional on how he feels and what the next step is,” Roberts said. “So I don’t think anyone knows how the next few months will go.”
Roberts wasn’t sure how many pitches Otani would throw on Saturday.
“We’ve been watching the bullpen for quite some time, so I think we’re all worried about it to see him get out there and try to put out a major league batsman,” the manager said.
Otani was mixed in breaking the pitch during a slow session for the first time in Tuesday’s rehabilitation program. Before that, right-handers were limited to fastballs and splitters.
“It looks good. It’s easy to get 94 or 95 (mph) in your hands. It’s a really good throw,” Roberts said. “I think we all are eager to see how it looks to the batsman. When he decides to strengthen it, I’m very worried about it too. But it’s all on his schedule. It’s really true.
Otani pitched a 50-pitch bullpen last Saturday, up from 35 in the previous session.
Following that workout, the sturdy hitter went 6/6 with two strikeouts in an 11-9 loss to the Angels. Roberts acknowledged that increasing the intensity of Otani’s rehabilitation regimen on the mound could affect offense with designated batsmen.
“Shohei is very tailored to his body, but it’s even possible whether he feels he feels taxed on a certain Saturday, or he doesn’t play the game,” Roberts said. “I don’t know what it looks like. It’s not really. But I think we should be obviously open to it.”
But at this point, the defending World Series champions Dodgers have no plans to get Otani to start minor league rehabilitation on the mound.
“Obviously, build-up is important, but he’s been taking five at-bats in the game,” Roberts said.
Otani was tied to a major league lead, with 17 Homer heading for the Mets against the series opener on Friday night, a rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series. The three MVP who had left shoulder surgery in the offseason also hit .304 with a 31 RBI and 1.053 OPS. He led the big leagues in running at 52.
In other news, Roberts said right-handed Tyler Glasnow was in good spirits after throwing 16 or 19 pitches in his first bullpen session since he was on the injured list on April 28th.
“I don’t know what that means in terms of speed, but he knows it’s coming after a pretty good one,” Roberts said.
Glasnow (right shoulder inflammation) is one of the 14 Dodgers pitchers in IL.
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