Shohei Ohtani’s preparing to add another wrinkle to his already impressive arsenal. The Dodgers’ superstar is switching up his pitching mechanics, moving away from his signature stretch delivery as he eyes a return to the mound this season.
“Traditionally, I’ve been throwing from the stretch a lot,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “But as part of being a baseball player, I do want to explore different options, different avenues, to see if I could grow as a player.”
The timing’s interesting. The Dodgers just bolstered their rotation by adding Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki after pitching depth became an issue during their 2024 World Series run. Even with additions like Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow last offseason, injuries left their staff thin heading into the playoffs.
Ohtani hasn’t pitched since undergoing UCL surgery in 2023, and he’s spent his first Dodger season focused solely on hitting. Now he’s looking at a potential May return to the mound – without any spring training or minor league tune-ups.
The mechanical change could give hitters something new to think about. They’re used to seeing Ohtani work exclusively from the stretch, like he did during his time with the Angels. But success will depend on how his arm responds to both the rehab and the new delivery.
“There’s some complicating factors,” Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes told The Orange County Register. “Looking at the schedule, we have a general sense of what we’d like to do right now. But obviously once we get there, (we will) continue to talk to Sho and build him up so that… he feels as prepared as possible when he goes into a regular game.”
Ohtani seems eager to test things out. “I do want to see how the body responds, how I respond to it,” he said. That’s going to be key as the Dodgers look to defend thier title with potentially their most talented arm rejoining the rotation.
