LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers surprised the baseball world when they decided that Shohei Ohtani's long-awaited return to the mound would come on Monday night. Now that his season debut as a pitcher has come and gone, how will he proceed from here?
What had been a slow and steady buildup accelerated in a hurry once Ohtani began facing hitters. In a sense, he's still rehabbing, just at the big league level -- since he's not yet built up to make full starts.
General manager Brandon Gomes and manager Dave Roberts addressed the logistics of how they'll manage Ohtani in a two-way role before he took the mound on Monday. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions:
How often will he pitch?
As things stand, Ohtani will probably pitch around once a week.
Gomes: "We need to see how it comes. It is the beauty of, these are just free innings [because of his two-way player status], right? It doesn't come at the cost of anything. … Let's have a conversation, see how he feels, what makes sense moving forward, and just do that over and over again and make sure that everything is set up so that we're not taking on any additional risk."
Will he hit when he pitches, and will he continue to bat leadoff?
The plan as of now is for Ohtani to lead off as a hitter on the days he starts on the mound.
Roberts: "I ran it by him, and he said, ‘No problem. I’m good with it.’ I haven’t really dug into the archives when he was a two-way player with the Angels. I think there were times when he did hit leadoff. I don’t think it really affects him. Again, [his first start] is going to be a short stint. It could change going forward, but right now, he feels very comfortable with taking the mound, then coming into the dugout and getting on his stuff to go take an at-bat."
What determines how long his outings will be on a night-to-night basis?
Ohtani could potentially add on an inning with every outing, but the process might not necessarily be linear.
Roberts: "How he looks, to be quite frank. The pitch count. How he feels after the inning, certainly. For us, as Dodgers, this is uncharted territory. It’s been a long time since he’s been on the mound. So for now, just leaving it open-ended."
When will he build up to full starts?
The Dodgers could use Ohtani as a multi-inning opener, or they could continue to build his innings -- it depends on how he feels.
Gomes: "I think it's just seeing how each outing goes and whatever that looks like. The main goal is obviously to have him strong down the stretch run and through October. We won't know that from here to there, but I do know at each step we'll have those discussions and make sure that that is the guiding light, to make sure that he's feeling as good as possible come October."
Will he need more built-in rest now that he's back to a two-way workload?
There's a possibility that Ohtani will need a day off here and there. As with his rehab progression, the team will rely on his feedback.
Gomes: “I think the thought right now is that things will carry on as they have, and this will add another layer to the workload. Like we do with all our guys, try to understand how they’re feeling and if there’s a day that he needs, we’ll give it to him. That will be an ongoing conversation between he and Doc. If he says he feels good, we’ll keep going with him as we have.”
Roberts: “I think that, obviously, it’s not gonna be a once-every-five-days situation [as a pitcher]. So there’s gonna be plenty of time to recover. We also have the luxury of pitching him as much [or as little] as we want in a particular outing, because again, it’s additive as far as our roster. So today is one opportunity, and we’ll see how he responds. And we’re still gathering information. And then I think going forward, it’ll be helpful to what decisions we have. But right now, I don’t know what it looks like as far as days off before, after, the day of; where he hits in the lineup, all that stuff. Today, I’m just kind of trying to gather as much information as I can as well.”