All is right in the world because baseball fans get to see superstar Shohei Ohtani back on the mound in 2025.
The reigning World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, had a busy offseason getting even better. With the additions of Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki and Tanner Scott, the Dodgers pitching staff as a whole improved significantly. However, the one arm that has the most anticipation is that of superstar Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani was strictly a designated hitter for the Dodgers in his first season with the organization. He filled that role pretty nicely by capturing a National League MVP award hitting .310 with 54 home runs and 130 RBIs. He also had 59 stolen bases in 2024.
As if he wasn’t valuable enough, Ohtani is now recovered from injury and will return to the mound as a starting pitcher in addition to being a DH. Ohtani re-injuring his throwing arm still feels like a big risk considering the fact the Dodgers rotation would be just fine without him. However, it sure sounds like it is a risk manager Dave Roberts is willing to take.
Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts has high expectations for Shohei Ohtani as a pitcher
During the offseason, it was questionable if Shohei Ohtani would return to pitching in 2025, even if he was fully healthy. With the additions the Dodgers made this winter while also retaining veteran arms like Clayton Kershaw, the starting rotation would be one of the best in baseball even without Ohtani.
Ohtani is a Cy Young Award caliber player when he has been able to pitch. He has a career record of 38-19 and a 3.01 ERA with 608 strikeouts in 86 starts. Perhaps knowing how dominate he can be, Dave Roberts can’t help but pursue those results.
Ohtani has had multiple arm injuries in his career and has openly stated that if he were to face one more, he would turn his attention to strictly hitting. Obviously, he is great at that aspect of the game as well, but the Dodgers paid him $700 million to hit and pitch. It sounds like Roberts is going to try to get what he paid for in 2025.
According to Andrés Soto of MLB.com, Roberts is expecting to get 18 to 20 starts out of Ohtani in 2025. While hearing these expectations should excite Dodgers fans that Ohtani is clearly fully healthy, it should also terrify them. There is a chance Roberts runs the superstar into the ground with this plan and another injury ends his pitching career.
