Will Shohei Ohtani boost the Dodgers bullpen in

The Dodgers are planning to use Shohei Ohtani as a beginning pitcher in the playoffs, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman confirmed Monday.

That doesn’t imply, however, that there aren’t sure situations in which he may also come out of the bullpen, as effectively.

“Things play out in October that you can’t foresee,” Friedman said before Monday’s sport against the Philadelphia Phillies — shortly after, coincidentally, catching up with new Phillies signing and ex-Dodgers favourite Walker Buehler, who made three begins in the Dodgers’ rotation last postseason before rising for a title-clinching save in Game 5 of the Fall Classic.

“Walker Buehler was a starting pitcher for us last year, and finished out Game 5 of the World Series,” Friedman famous. “So you never know how things are going to play out.”

The risk of Ohtani pitching in aid has been percolating for the last a number of weeks. Pitching coach Mark Prior said he may “absolutely” envision it during an look on the “Dan Patrick Show” last month. Manager Dave Roberts has more just lately reiterated that the dialog concerning Ohtani’s postseason pitching position stays open as the common season winds down.

“Could it change down the road in the postseason? Possibly,” Roberts said Sunday when pressed on the matter again. “But right now we see him as a starter.”

Friedman largely echoed that sentiment Monday, a day before Ohtani was set for his next scheduled start in a pivotal sequence against the Phillies (who entered this week’s go to to Dodger Stadium 4 ½ video games forward of the Dodgers for the No. 2 seed in the National League standings, and the first-round bye that comes with it).

Friedman praised Ohtani, who has returned from a second-career Tommy John surgical procedure this yr with a 3.75 ERA and 49 strikeouts over 36 innings, as “one of the best starters in the National League.”

He said the staff’s expectation is that the right-hander “will impact us as a starting pitcher” in the playoffs — even though Ohtani won’t pitch a lot past the fifth inning of video games (the restrict he has been held to in his current common season begins) and received’t be requested to make consecutive begins on regular 4 days of relaxation (he has gotten at least 5 days off between each of his outings this yr).

“No one is taking on more than [he is with the] pitching and also hitting and running the bases,” Friedman said. “So just trying to be cognizant of that.”

However, pitching out of the bullpen in some particular, late-game conditions may stay on the desk.

Like Buehler last yr, and Clayton Kershaw in many Octobers before that, a long postseason run would possible offer alternatives for the Dodgers to use Ohtani as a reliever in the days between his begins — maybe in potential close-out video games or on nights when the back end of the staff’s struggling bullpen is low on other reliable choices.

Ohtani does have memorable personal expertise in such a position, having recorded the last outs of Team Japan’s victory in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

When wanting forward to this postseason, Friedman didn’t close the door on that risk either; even though he said his focus has remained on navigating the last two weeks of the common season first.

“We’re expecting him to be a starter for us,” Friedman said, “and depending on everything else, we’ll figure out where to go from there.”

Of course, Ohtani’s two-way standing would add additional problems to any potential bullpen plans.

There are logistical questions — like how he would heat up if his spot in the batting order comes up the inning before he’s supposed to take the mound.

And then there may be a technical dilemma — with MLB’s two-way guidelines having been written in a approach that, if Ohtani had been to enter the sport as a reliever, the Dodgers would lose him as a designated hitter once he exits the mound.

“Once you fire him … and you decide to come out of it, you have to take that cost of losing the DH and losing him as a hitter,” Roberts said. “You got to be willing to take the chance.”

That actuality may limit Ohtani to pitching only out of the bullpen in the ninth inning of video games, and may make the Dodgers more hesitant to use Ohtani in aid at all for worry of what would occur if a sport prolonged past the end of his outing.

Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani stays a key bat for the staff, including weight to any resolution to use him as a reliever.

(Eric Thayer/Eric Thayer For The Los Angeles Times)

“I think they missed the mark with it,” Friedman said when requested if he was annoyed by the language of the two-way rule; which was enacted by MLB a number of years in the past in response to Ohtani’s emergence as a two-way star, but only permits him to stay in the sport as a hitter after he exits pitching begins, particularly.

“I think the rule was put in place to try to encourage people to do it, to incentivize people,” Friedman said. “So yeah, I think they missed.”

Friedman famous he’d appreciated to see the rule ultimately modified to also embody aid appearances, but acknowledged “that’s more of an offseason, future thing.”

“Obviously,” he added, “it’s not reasonable for us to ask for that in-season.”

Thus, for now, the Dodgers will continue to weigh the advanced professionals and cons of how to use Ohtani’s arm once they attain October.

His current weekly pitching schedule has Ohtani lined up to throw in Game 1 of a potential wild card sequence, which is able to start precisely two weeks from his Tuesday evening start against the Phillies (though Friedman insisted that wasn’t intentional).

Whether his companies are needed, even in narrowly conceivable circumstances, out of the bullpen past that stays to be seen — with the Dodgers persevering with to go away that risk open for now.

“I think so much of it is, when does he start? What’s that time off in-between? How lined up are our other starters?” Friedman said.

“Until we know that, it’s hard to get too much into it.”