{"id":71688,"date":"2025-05-21T11:51:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T15:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/?p=71688"},"modified":"2025-05-21T11:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T15:51:12","slug":"ohtani-takes-major-step-toward-dodgers-pitching-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/ohtani-takes-major-step-toward-dodgers-pitching-debut\/71688\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohtani takes major step toward dodgers pitching debut"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Los Angeles Dodgers\u2019 pitching staff has been living in an injury nightmare, from Kirby Yates<\/strong> to Blake Snell<\/strong>, Roki Sasaki<\/strong>, Tyler Glasnow<\/strong>, and more. But there\u2019s finally a glimmer of hope coming from the bullpen, and it\u2019s a big one.<\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani<\/strong>, the $700 million man and baseball\u2019s unicorn, is inching closer to making his pitching debut<\/strong> for the Dodgers. Though he\u2019s dazzled at the plate since joining LA, his right arm, fresh off elbow surgery<\/strong>, has been biding its time. But now? The wait might be paying off.<\/p>\n

After throwing 50 bullpen pitches on May 17<\/strong> without any breaking balls, Ohtani just added sliders and other breakers<\/strong> to his throwing session for the first time since surgery, per The Associated Press<\/strong>. Until now, he\u2019d only been letting it rip with fastballs and splitters.<\/p>\n

This is a huge step<\/strong> in his rehab, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts<\/strong> is cautiously optimistic:<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is progressing. I\u2019m not sure when he\u2019s going to take that slider from the flat ground to the bullpen, but that is progress.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Translation? He\u2019s not throwing 100 mph lasers in-game just yet, but the signs are very<\/em> promising.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s still no official return date<\/strong>, post-All-Star break<\/strong> looks like the sweet spot for his long-awaited return to the mound, barring any setbacks. And when he does<\/em> finally toe the rubber in Dodger blue, it could be the jolt this injury-depleted rotation desperately needs.<\/p>\n

So Dodgers fans, hang tight, Shohei the pitcher is coming.<\/strong> And when he arrives, it\u2019s going to be must-watch baseball<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Dodgers\u2019 pitching staff has been living in an injury nightmare, from Kirby Yates to Blake Snell, Roki\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":71689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[27572],"class_list":["post-71688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ohtani"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}