Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani aims for fully healthy season on the mound

GLENDALE, Ariz. — As he enters the ninth season of his MLB career – third with the Dodgers – Shohei Ohtani’s list of accomplishments is long indeed.

Four MVPs (two in each league), baseball’s first 50-50 season and now two World Series titles.

What’s left? How about a Cy Young Award?

“If at the end the result is getting a Cy Young, that’s great,” Ohtani said, speaking to the media after throwing a bullpen session during Friday’s first official workout for pitchers and catchers at Dodgers camp.

“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. What I’m more focused on is just being healthy the whole year.”

After shoulder surgery following the 2024 World Series and Tommy John surgery in September 2023, Ohtani said he enjoyed being “finally able to have a normal offseason – although the offseason was pretty short.

“I thought it was a good thing, actually, to have a shorter offseason,” he said through his interpreter, referring to the down time sacrificed to another deep postseason run and World Series championship.

Though he won’t pitch in the World Baseball Classic, Ohtani arrived at Camelback Ranch right after the Dodgerfest event Jan. 31. The bullpen session he threw Friday, Ohtani said, was his third of the spring already. He said his “goal” is to throw to hitters in a live batting practice session next week before he and Yoshinobu Yamamoto leave to join Team Japan for the WBC because he is not sure how much throwing he will do during the WBC.

Yamamoto also reported to camp early and faced hitters in live BP on Friday.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the team will almost certainly go with a six-man starting rotation this year as they did for long stretches of 2025 and their trio of Japanese pitchers – Ohtani, Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki – will probably be on schedules similar to the once-a-week routine the Dodgers held them to for much of last season.

“I think early, it’s hard to say it won’t be (a six-man starting rotation),” Roberts said. “How beholden we are to that, for how long, I don’t know. But I think it’s easy to say that because the early part of the season we’re very mindful of giving guys rest to keep guys built up. I think that lends itself to that. It’s hard to say right now who those participants are. It really is. But I do think that with the pitching, the starting pitching depth we have, it makes sense as I sit here right now. How that looks, end of April? I’m not sure yet.”

That would serve to lessen the workload for Ohtani as a pitcher. Returning from Tommy John surgery last year, he did not pitch until June and then was limited to 47 innings during the regular season, with 20⅓ more in the postseason.

But there are no limits on what Ohtani can accomplish as a pitcher now that he’s fully healthy, Roberts said – including a Cy Young Award.

“I think the regular offseason ramp-up, there’s certainly a lot more in there,” Roberts said. “Regardless of my expectations for him, his are going to exceed those. I think it’s fair to say he expects to be in the Cy Young conversation. But we just want him to be healthy and make starts. All the numbers and statistics will take care of themselves. But man, this guy is such a disciplined worker and expects the most from himself.”