{"id":859474,"date":"2026-08-15T21:52:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T21:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/859474\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T21:52:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T21:52:29","slug":"shohei-ohtani-takes-an-important-step-in-push-to-pitch-for-dodgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/859474\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani takes an important step in push to pitch for Dodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dodgers<\/a> star Shohei Ohtani<\/a> took the bullpen mound at Dodger Stadium, with president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and pitching coach Mark Prior looking on, and began his first bullpen throwing session in more than three weeks.<\/p>\n

Friday marked an important step in Ohtani\u2019s throwing progression. He threw 34 pitches before the Dodgers\u2019 3-1 win<\/a> over the Milwaukee Brewers. According to manager Dave Roberts, he threw his complete arsenal of pitches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty confident that if we stay the course, he\u2019ll throw a \u2018pen in two, three, four, five days,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cAnd then, if we get out of that, I think we\u2019ll be out of the woods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Ohtani hasn\u2019t landed on the injured list for lingering inflammation and soreness in his left knee, he hasn\u2019t pitched in a game since July 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After Ohtani received a lubricating Orthovisc injection in his knee at the beginning of the All-Star break, the Dodgers hoped<\/a> he would pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies on July 22. But as they monitored his response, it became clear he wasn\u2019t going to be ready.<\/p>\n

Instead, Ohtani threw a 31-pitch bullpen. But his recovery regressed, and he was shut down from throwing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, he wants to be healthy,\u201d Roberts said earlier this week. \u201cHe wants to be there in the postseason. I think that did check him up. If you look at how we kind of paused things \u2014 we all want to be smart and careful. I\u2019m happy that we\u2019ve done that with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohtani restarted catch play on Aug. 7. And after playing catch three more days this week, Ohtani and the Dodgers determined he was ready to throw off the mound again.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than rush the progression of this I would rather make sure we\u2019re headed in the right direction,\u201d Ohtani said last week. \u201cMaking sure we\u2019re taking the right steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohtani is expected to go through a bullpen progression and then advance to throwing live batting practice. Roberts didn\u2019t have an exact schedule for those steps but he estimated Ohtani would need one or two more bullpens and no fewer than two live BPs.<\/p>\n

Because the Dodgers want to keep Ohtani in the lineup, he\u2019ll have to build up in games rather than going on a minor-league rehab assignment.<\/p>\n

Ohtani did something similar last season, but then he was returning to the mound for the first time since 2023 elbow surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving kind of done that \u2014 an inning here, an inning there and then you sort of build up during the season, absolutely,\u201d said Roberts when asked if 2025 could serve as a blueprint. \u201cAnd I think he\u2019s seen what that buildup can lead to and how it looks. I certainly feel that he\u2019ll buy in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Injury updates<\/p>\n

Catchers Will Smith<\/a> (neck) and Dalton Rushing<\/a> (elbow) each took steps in their hitting progressions. Both took batting practice Friday.<\/p>\n

Smith has been out since early June, so he\u2019ll need to progress to live batting practice and likely go on a minor-league rehab assignment before returning from the IL.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill, I don\u2019t see the rehab being too long,\u201d Roberts said, \u201cgiven his kind of simple swing and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rushing landed on the IL<\/a> on Aug. 3 and began taking swings a week later. But he has yet to start a throwing program.<\/p>\n

\u201cDalton, very encouraged,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cFeels like he can go out there and take an at-bat right now, which is great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani took the bullpen mound at Dodger Stadium, with president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[299128,49,48,299126,299130,12389,511,299127,1112,299125,10719,66843,299129,462,6905,196635,482,82,2813],"class_list":["post-859474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-bullpen-mound","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-catch-play","tag-catchers-will-smith","tag-day","tag-dodgers","tag-elbow-surgery","tag-game","tag-important-step","tag-july","tag-left-knee","tag-live-batting-practice","tag-mlb","tag-ohtani","tag-progression","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-sports","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}