PHOENIX –– A devious smile crept across Shohei Ohtani’s face as he was presented with the hypothetical.
By all accounts, the Dodgers’ two-way star is not going to pitch in next month’s World Baseball Classic with Team Japan. Even after his first fully healthy offseason since undergoing a second career Tommy John surgery, he and the team decided it’d be best to save his arm for the grind of a long regular season.
But what if, Ohtani was asked Sunday, the opportunity arises to close out another WBC title, as he did by striking out Mike Trout for the final out in the 2023 edition of the tournament.
“I wonder,” Ohtani answered in Japanese, flashing his playful grin. “If Trout comes out at the end, maybe.”
Tempting as it may be, the only pitching Ohtani is expected to do while he is away from Dodgers camp for the international event will be much more mundane –– and not just because Trout won’t play for Team USA this time.
Earlier Sunday morning, Ohtani faced hitters in a live batting practice session for the second time this spring, throwing 33 pitches over a two-inning outing that included a couple hard line drives but also strikeouts of Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts.
And now, as he prepares to depart spring camp to join Team Japan in the coming days, the Dodgers are hopeful he will be able to throw two more live BP sessions on off-days during the WBC, according to pitching coach Mark Prior.
That plan would keep Ohtani on track to be in the Dodgers’ rotation from the start of the regular season in late March, even though he might not pitch in a real game until the final week of spring training.
“We’ve talked about it, had conversations with him, and kind of mapped out some tentative schedules,” Prior said. “A lot of it will depend, as usual with him, on where he’s at, what are the logistics of everything (during the WBC) … But if we can get two more outings out of him, of him facing hitters, that would be ideal.”
To this point, everything else about Ohtani’s preparation as a pitcher has gone according to plan.
Coming off his first fully healthy offseason as a Dodger, he came into spring camp ready to face hitters right away. He is already incorporating his full mix of pitches more than he did last year, too, when he largely stuck to a fastball/slider/sweeper combination while returning from Tommy John in the second half of the campaign.
To Prior, the biggest difference has come behind the scenes.
In both catch play and bullpen sessions, the right-hander has been able to practice his pitching at a higher intensity.
“Last year’s bullpens, from a velocity and intensity (standpoint), he was very conservative,” Prior said. “I think now, he feels he’s far enough removed to where he’s been able to push it.”
Case in point: At the end of Sunday’s live session, Prior could feel Ohtani dialing up the intensity, noting how the four-time MVP hit 99 mph on one of his final pitches.
“It’s been a good week for him,” Prior said. “Obviously, he’s trying to compress a lot of stuff before he leaves.”
Staying on schedule as a pitcher will be more complicated once Ohtani departs for the WBC. He will first fly to Japan to train with his national team. The group stage portion of the tournament will include four games in a five-day span at the Tokyo Dome from March 6-10. And if Japan advances to the knockout round as expected, Ohtani will then go to Miami for as many as three more games –– including potentially the final on March 17.
That could leave little time for live pitching sessions, especially considering the narrow workout windows each team has during the event. And even if Ohtani gets all his pitching work in, it’s likely he will still begin the regular season less than fully built up, meaning his first few Dodgers outings could be on the shorter side.
That’s all fine by the Dodgers, though.
They’ve waited two years to have Ohtani available as a full-time two-way player. They remain impressed with the progress he’s already made this spring. And the fact he can even field hypotheticals like the one he got Sunday is just another sign of the promising form he continues to show.
“I do think,” Prior said, “we’re seeing more of a regular version of him.”