Dodgers' Andrew Friedman to Meet With Shohei Ohtani to Discuss Pitching: Report

Maren Angus-Coombs | Sep 20, 2024

Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

There has been a lot of talk recently about Shohei Ohtani potentially pitching in the postseason, but the two-way superstar hasn't been a part of those conversations. So far.

“There’s no conversation that was brought about with the pitching coach in terms of pitching in the postseason,” Ohtani said through his interpreter this week. “But we’re going to have a meeting back in L.A. to discuss the overall rehab progression.”

According to Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, the meeting between the two has nothing to do with Ohtani pitching this year.

“The meeting is about his rehab progression and timing for how to get him ready for next year – which has always been planned to get into,” Friedman said. “If you strip away what’s going on with the Dodgers, right now he’s thrown about five bullpens, which is the equivalent of January, late January in his progression (in a normal offseason buildup) and October lines up at some point middle to late for live BPs like pitchers do when they come to spring training.

“The question is whether to do those then (in October) or do them in November but make sure he has enough shutdown time before the start of the following year. This has been on our radar as something to talk about since spring training.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made headlines recently by not ruling out the possibility of using Ohtani as a reliever in October. Friedman was more pessimistic.

“We aren’t even thinking about that right now,” Friedman said. “Again, this is like January for him. He’s just barely a year out from Tommy John.

“To me, he’s not really an option.”

Ohtani has thrown off a mound six times and has only worked his arm up to 30 pitches. He just threw for three consecutive days for the first time when the Dodgers were in Atlanta on Monday followed by Miami on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“The whole meeting is about how we handle his rehab to have him in the best position to be ready to go in ’25 while also taking the least amount of toll on him in ’24 because he will have an important job in October as it is,” Friedman said. “Okay – if you suspend it then and do it in November, is that enough time or do you ramp him up and have him a little bit later (at the start of next season)? That’s the stuff we have to get into.

“I don’t know the answer to that.”