The hardest-thrown pitch of Shohei Ohtani’s career came on the day his team might have least expected it.
It was June 28 in Kansas City, and the weather was so hot around midday that Ohtani at one point crouched in the corner of Kauffman Stadium’s left-field bullpen to rest underneath the only sliver of shade available. His fastball barely broke 90 mph as he prepared for that afternoon’s game, worrying some of the Los Angeles Dodgers coaches. Then came the first inning. The Royals had two men on with one out. Vinnie Pasquantino, a notorious fastball hitter, came to bat. Ohtani sought to challenge him and unleashed a four-seamer that traveled 101.7 mph, inducing a double play and eliciting a lighthearted response from the Royals’ first baseman.
To a staff still learning about the pitching version of Ohtani, that pitch revealed something about the way his stuff reacts when it’s met with adrenaline, and what it might mean within the backdrop of baseball’s postseason. Said Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior: “He just has this ability to turn it on.”
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Ohtani is scheduled to make his last regular-season start against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday, a development that might be serendipitous. Ohtani is now perfectly lined up to start Game 1 of next week’s wild-card round, in which L.A. is likely to take part. And though the Dodgers have yet to announce a rotation for that three-game series, it seems fitting that Ohtani would kick-start these playoffs as a two-way player. For years, fans throughout the world have been clamoring to see the most unique player in baseball history perform to his maximum capabilities on the sport’s grandest stage. Why delay it further?
“Everybody’s waiting for that moment, when he takes the ball in a big game and he has to go bat in the same [inning],” Ohtani’s teammate, Teoscar Hernández, said. “It’s gonna be exciting. I can’t wait.”
Any lingering concerns about Ohtani’s viability as a postseason pitcher were alleviated seven days ago, when, in his 13th start since a second repair of his ulnar collateral ligament, he no-hit the mighty Philadelphia Phillies through five innings. Ohtani matched his career-high velocity that night — on a pitch to Kyle Schwarber, who’s tied with Ohtani for the National League lead in home runs — and later triggered more questions about whether the Dodgers should stretch him further.
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In their past three turns through the rotation, the Dodgers’ six starting pitchers have posted a 2.17 ERA. In that same stretch, their relievers have combined for a 4.91 ERA. The Dodgers used a dominant bullpen to overcome a thin rotation last October. This year, it’s their rotation that’s strong and their bullpen that’s weak — a dynamic that prompted Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to openly wonder if Ohtani’s right arm might be more useful out of the bullpen. Ohtani himself even threw out the possibility of playing the outfield, a necessity to stay in the lineup once he finishes pitching in relief.
But there is no need to ponder alternatives at this moment — Ohtani will be a starting pitcher in the playoffs, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said.
Anything else would be forced out of chaos and desperation.
“To Shohei’s credit, he’s like, ‘Hey, I’m willing to do anything,'” Friedman said. “It really indicates how much he wants to win. I can’t say enough for a star of that level to be so selfless in opening the door to whatever we think gives us the best chance to win — but I think he’s one of the better starting pitchers in baseball.”
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Ohtani is all but guaranteed his fourth MVP Award in five years. His first year with the Dodgers saw him become the first ever 50/50 player, claim his first championship in his first trip to the postseason and then become the first full-time designated hitter to win an MVP.
His stolen-base totals are down significantly this season, from 59 to 19, an anticipated by-product of his pitching buildup. But the rest of his offensive numbers — .283/.395/.623 slash line, 53 home runs, 173 weighted runs created plus — are basically on par. And he’s pairing it with a 3.29 ERA in 41 innings, putting him at 8.9 fWAR heading into the final week of the regular season. Most importantly, he seems to be getting stronger as October approaches — a frequently stated goal as the Dodgers delayed his return to pitching and layered the innings in slowly, keeping him to a maximum of nine outs until August.
“I think that we couldn’t be more pleased with how it’s played out,” Roberts said. “Obviously Shohei’s the driver of this, but the training staff, the coaches have all done a great job kind of managing it. His teammates have done a great job of allowing for the different starts, the days in between. But looking at where we were at in spring training, to be here now, just overjoyed.”
When the playoffs come, Ohtani will bat leadoff every game and, as has been the case throughout his major league career, make pitching starts on five or six days’ rest. Roberts doesn’t believe he’ll have to do any managing of Ohtani outside of how long his starts will last, though that alone might get complicated.
In Ohtani’s return to pitching, the Dodgers have been more cognizant of innings than pitch count because of the stress of alternating between activity and rest. That was never more evident than last Tuesday, when Ohtani was taken out just 68 pitches into a no-hitter because the Dodgers had predetermined he would not pitch beyond the fifth inning.
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Whether such a strict innings limit will continue in the playoffs remains to be seen — but the possibility of Ohtani playing the outfield is basically out of the question. Ohtani has not taken a single fly ball all year. And though the Dodgers believe he’s athletic enough to make such a quick transition, they would worry about him having to make a high-stress throw. They also don’t want to force him into such an unorthodox situation in such a high-stakes environment. In other words, they don’t want to set him up to fail.
As one Dodgers source put it: “That wouldn’t be fair to him.”
So, Ohtani will start. Unless chaos emerges, which it often does. Friedman pointed to the night of Oct. 30, 2024, when starting pitcher Walker Buehler came out of the Yankee Stadium bullpen to close out the World Series because the Dodgers had run out of pitchers. Ohtani might be called on to do something similar if the moment is right, Friedman allowed.
If they’re wondering how he might handle it, they can merely look back at the finale of the 2023 World Baseball Classic, when Ohtani sealed a championship for Japan by striking out then-Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout with an 87.2 mph sweeper.
The pitch before that: a fastball, at 101.6.
