Ohtani faces hitters, 'way ahead' of last year on pitching side

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Although the schedule would not appear to be in Shohei Ohtani's favor, both he and the Dodgers are confident that the two-way superstar can begin this season in the rotation.

Ohtani has bold aspirations for his second year back on the mound following a second major surgery on his right elbow, but the process of building up his arm will be complicated -- not just because of his hitting duties, like last year, but because he will depart camp to join Samurai Japan for the World Baseball Classic later this month.

There are parallels to a year ago, when Ohtani had to slow his rehab as a pitcher due to the season-opening Tokyo Series. He wasn't able to face hitters before the Dodgers broke camp, a step he took for the first time this spring on Tuesday alongside Yoshinobu Yamamoto at Camelback Ranch.

"To see him face hitters, kind of start his buildup -- he’s certainly way ahead of where he was last year on the pitching side. That’s a good thing," manager Dave Roberts said. "But I just really don’t worry too much about his buildup and preparation."

Ohtani (one inning) and Yamamoto (two innings) faced a group of hitters that included Kyle Tucker, Andy Pages, Teoscar Hernández, Hyeseong Kim and Michael Siani. Both appeared to throw at a good intensity and come away from it well.

Yamamoto, coming off a career-high workload in the Majors and set to pitch in the World Baseball Classic, is further along than Ohtani in his pitching buildup. He will probably make it into a Cactus League game before leaving to join Samurai Japan, while Ohtani is "very unlikely" to, Roberts said.

That leaves Ohtani with limited opportunities to pitch in games before the regular season begins. Samurai Japan stands a good chance of defending its Classic title, and if it returns to the championship game, that would keep Ohtani away from the Dodgers through at least March 17. He could feasibly make it into one of the Freeway Series exhibition games from March 22-24, but that would likely be his only game action before Opening Day.

The Dodgers have seen Ohtani ramp up for game action with limited opportunities to throw. After last year, they have a point of reference to inform their handling of his unique two-way buildup.

"Obviously, last year [he] was coming back from surgery, and so we were very deliberate about a lot of things," president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. "This year we will be less so, but still mindful of it. It's a heavy, heavy load that he takes on that is different from every other player in baseball. And so I think a lot of it is reading and reacting."

As Ohtani worked his way back to the mound during the first couple months of last year's regular season, it was a deliberate progression of throwing bullpen sessions before games until he felt ready to face hitters. Once he got there, the process accelerated rapidly. He only threw live batting practice three times before making his Dodgers pitching debut, beginning with one inning in mid-June.

Even once Ohtani returned to the mound in game action, his buildup was strictly regimented. He increased his workload by an inning every two starts and was only fully stretched out for about the final month of the regular season.

The Dodgers won't operate by the rigid rules they set for much of last year, but it is likely that Ohtani will be limited innings-wise, at least to begin the season. That could lead to them getting creative early on, perhaps taking advantage of the off-days in the first month to use a five-man rotation with an extra long reliever in the bullpen to account for shorter starts from Ohtani.

Given that Ohtani is unlikely to be fully ramped up as a pitcher for the beginning of the season, his goal of putting himself in the mix for this year's NL Cy Young Award is a bit of a stretch. He himself acknowledged that he would need a robust workload to be in the conversation for the honor.

But if the Dodgers have learned anything in the past two years, it's that they should never count out Ohtani when he has his mind set on achieving something.

"The fact that he is saying that, he seems like he's on a mission, pitching-wise," Friedman said. "Whenever we've seen him on a mission, good things happen."