Shohei Ohtani making his Dodgers pitching debut | College News

The long-anticipated wait is over — Shohei Ohtani is prepared to pitch.

The Dodgers introduced after Sunday’s 5-4 win over the Giants that Ohtani will make his Dodgers pitching debut Monday against the San Diego Padres. He will begin, but he probably will pitch only an inning or two.

“It’s very exciting,” mentioned Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts before the workforce introduced Ohtani’s begin. “I think that for me, I’m still a baseball fan first. I really am. The anticipation here for the game is, man, it’s going to be bananas when it happens. There’s been a lot of anticipation. I think we’ve done it the right way as far as kind of our process.”

For Ohtani, it’s been a long street back to pitching. He signed with the Dodgers on a 10-year, $700-million contract before the 2024 season — a worth representing not just his MVP-level bat, but his potential Cy Young Award-level pitching.

He underwent Tommy John surgical procedure in September 2023, only hitting in his first season with the Dodgers. He tallied unprecedented numbers at the plate (.310 batting average, league-high 54 home runs, 130 RBI and 59 stolen bases). In latest weeks, Ohtani ramped up his throwing program, going through stay hitters a handful of instances.

Roberts mentioned Ohtani let the workforce — and its coaching employees — know he was prepared to pitch in video games again.

“Just kind of talking to [pitching coach Mark Prior] and [president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman] and the doctors and medical and just kind of saying, ‘OK, we’ve done the three-inning live, it’s a little taxing or more taxing on my body,’” Roberts mentioned. “You’re at a point of, I don’t know if it’s diminishing returns. But he’s ready to pitch in a major league game. He let us know that.”

Ohtani had been good for the Angels, going 38-19 with a 3.01 earned-run average over 86 begins since coming over from Japan before the 2018 season. In 2022, Ohtani posted his best pitching numbers in the majors, with a 15-9 report, a 2.33 earned-run average and 219 strikeouts over 166 innings en route to putting fourth in AL Cy Young Award voting.

It’ll probably be an incremental begin for Ohtani as he seems to add more pitches and innings in the weeks forward.

“He’s getting very eager, getting very excited,” Roberts mentioned before Sunday’s sport. “I think that there’s a point where, in hearing from Shohei, that the effort that it takes to throw lives and things like that, [rather] than to play a game, then let’s use those bullets in a game. He’s getting very excited.”

Now those proverbial “bullets” can be used Monday night time at Dodger Stadium.