Ohtani enters 2026 fully healthy as a pitcher for the first time since 2023, but the Dodgers are likely to keep a close eye on his workload as the season progresses.
Dodgers starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani tosses the ball before being removed during the fifth inning of a Freeway Series exhibition game against the Angels on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, at Dodger Stadium.
LOS ANGELES — There seems to be no limit to what Shohei Ohtani can do on a baseball field. So the Dodgers aren’t going to try to put any on him. “There is no blueprint for this,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said of Ohtani’s return to full-time status as a pitcher. Ohtani will make his first start of 2026 on Tuesday night. It will be the first time since 2023 that he enters the season fully healthy and ready to start pitching from the outset. During spring training, “Getting a Cy Young means being able to throw more innings and being able to pitch throughout the whole season, so if that’s the end result, that’s a good sign for me,” he said through an interpreter. “What I’m more focused on is just being healthy the whole year.” Keeping a two-way Ohtani healthy all year is definitely the Dodgers’ goal. That might mean putting limits on just how much the four-time league MVP pitches. “I think it is very much a conversation as we get into it. As at-bats accumulate, the pitches, how stressful are the innings – it’s an ongoing conversation,” Gomes said. “We’ve said this before – nobody understands what he does, what he goes through. So there is no blueprint of ‘This worked for this player therefore it could work for you.’ You just can’t do that. “I think there’s a trust component of, hey, let’s talk through it and if we need to make an adjustment we will. Trying to figure out the off days, all of it as he takes on a full season, I think it’s just being in regular communication about how he’s feeling and getting his thoughts so that we can try to balance that as much as possible.” On Ohtani’s start days, that responsibility will largely lie with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and how much he is willing to push Ohtani’s pitch count. “I think it’s fluid,” Roberts said Monday. “I like the six innings tomorrow, depending on how he’s throwing the baseball. And then maybe a repeat of that, or seven depending on efficiency. “But honestly, with Shohei, you’ve got to be willing to adapt, because if he’s really efficient, then you’re still trying to win the game. And if it makes sense, I’m not going to just pull the plug just because of a certain number.” The larger number is how many innings the Dodgers will ask Ohtani to pitch over the course of the season.. Another factor – teams are usually mindful of not asking pitchers to make big jumps in innings from one year to the next, particularly if they are coming off Tommy John surgery. Ohtani threw a total of 67⅓ innings last year in his return from a second elbow surgery. Gomes said there hasn’t been a conversation with Ohtani yet about a range in which the Dodgers would like to keep his pitching workload this season. “The biggest thing is making sure we’re tracking stuff and how he’s recovering and keeping that feedback loop,” Gomes said. “The easy part of it all is because he doesn’t count as a pitcher there is legitimately only upside. “So if we don’t pitch him – it’s like ‘Okay is this a good spot to take a couple days’ . … You can make the argument that too much time off or too much of a de-load is bad as well. That’s where it’s trying to figure out the cadence to it all is going to take conversations.” Roberts said he hasn’t looked beyond the start-to-start of Ohtani’s pitching to think about a range of innings he might get from the right-hander over the course of the season. “I think the range question is fair,” Roberts said. “It’s just not an exact science. As much as people want to think it might be, and some people probably do – innings aren’t all created equal. All throws aren’t created equal. “We talk to him a lot on how he’s feeling, and if there’s days that we have to kind of give him a couple extra days, we’re willing to do that. But yeah, I just don’t know the range. I really don’t.”When Kyle Tucker signed with the Dodgers, Roberts challenged the outfielder to return to the defensive level that earned him a Gold Glove with the Houston Astros in 2022. “He’s made some nice plays, he really has, whether it be cutting the ball off, keeping the guy at first base, getting to the wall, taking a home run away or getting back on a line drive over his head,” Roberts said Monday. “Those plays have been difference-makers. “He prides himself on his defense, and was disappointed last year in his defense. And so that’s something that – to win a Gold Glove is his goal coming into this year. Up to this point, it’s been very, very good. And yeah, he’s following through with what he said.”The Dodgers will start Roki Sasaki, Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the three games against the Cleveland Guardians this week. It is the first time in MLB history that a team has started Japanese-born pitchers in three consecutive games.Guardians at Dodgers , Tuesday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM‘No Kings’ protesters in Southern California among 8 million demonstrators across the USNo more Cesar Chavez day, but some offices, services will still be closed in LA CountyLASD deputy, 30, dies in Baker to Vegas relay raceUCLA’s Eric Freeny intends to stay for sophomore seasonLarge ‘reckless’ e-bike and e-moto ‘ride out’ in Long Beach leads to 1 arrest, 5 citations
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