Dodgers desperately need Shohei Ohtani’s arm, but his bat will do — for now
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Alden Gonzalez
The attrition that has plagued the Los Angeles Dodgers was most stark Tuesday night, when Matt Sauer, a 26-year-old journeyman, was called on to pitch bulk innings and wound up throwing 111 pitches, a career high and at least 29 more than he had tallied at any point in the past two years. He was followed by Enrique Hernandez, the team’s effervescent utility player, who recorded the final seven outs of a lopsided loss to the San Diego Padres by throwing crossbody cutters that barely reached 50 mph, marking the first time in at least 67 years that a Dodgers position player had been called on for more than two innings.
Such is the state of the Dodgers’ pitching staff. Its injury rate is once again alarming, the team’s division lead has become miniscule because of it — and the anticipation around Shohei Ohtani‘s return to pitching continues to intensify.
Ohtani took part in his third simulated game hours before the Dodgers deployed the bottom of their depth chart against their biggest rivals, ramping all the way up to 44 pitches. His first start since Aug. 23, 2023, might only be a month away. But the Dodgers vow to remain cautious, no matter how short-handed they might be. Ohtani’s bat is too valuable. His two-way future is too precarious.
“Viewing it on a shorter-term horizon, it’s easy to want to be aggressive and push — I think both from him and from us,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “But we set out to view this as putting him in the best position to pitch over the next nine years and prioritizing longevity, and this first year back, it’s really important for that long-term aspect to not be too aggressive right now.”
Ohtani, though, is forcing the issue. At around 2 p.m. Tuesday, he completed three innings and compiled six strikeouts against a couple of low-level minor leaguers, darting his fastball in the mid- to upper-90s and unleashing a handful of nasty sweepers. Later, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pinned Ohtani’s chances of joining the rotation before the All-Star break at “north of zero” — a sign that the timeline might have accelerated, even if only slightly. Ohtani’s two-way designation affords the luxury of an extra pitcher, allowing the Dodgers to bring him back before he is fully stretched out. The command he is already displaying has only made that more appealing.
But as this process has shown, things can change.
After navigating through a pitching progression toward the tail end of the 2024 regular season, the Dodgers carved out a plan in which Ohtani would essentially stop throwing during the playoffs and pick back up relatively early in the winter. Then Ohtani tore a labrum in his left shoulder in Game 2 of the World Series, necessitating offseason surgery and prompting spring training to essentially qualify as his offseason throwing program.
He paused leading up to the season-opening series in Japan around the middle of March, then built up slowly after the Dodgers returned to the United States. Later, when unforeseen circumstances emerged — an extra-inning game in New York, unfavorable weather in St. Louis — his throwing sessions were pushed back. Ohtani still must extend into the neighborhood of 70 pitches before the Dodgers can even think about unlocking him as a pitcher, even if he won’t initially throw that many in a game. When he does return, he will either be 22 or 23 months removed from a surgery that typically comes with a 12- to 14-month timeline.
His recovery has forced the Dodgers to be nimble, but most of all, to be patient.
“We need him to be healthy,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “They’re moving slow, and we’re all happy about that. We obviously want him to be pitching, but we want him to be healthy first and foremost. When you’re doing what he’s doing, it’s so unprecedented that I don’t know if there is a proper timeline. He might be moving faster than what he should be moving right now; we don’t really know that because it’s just never really been done before.”
For as dominant as Ohtani has proved to be as a pitcher — he posted a 2.84 ERA and compiled 542 strikeouts in 428⅓ innings from 2021 to 2023 before suffering a second tear of his ulnar collateral ligament — his impact on offense has become too important to risk.
Since the start of the 2023 season, his last with the Angels, Ohtani ranks first in the majors in homers (121), second in OPS (1.042), fifth in batting average (.304), sixth in stolen bases (90) and within the top 1% in average exit velocity, barrel rate and expected slugging percentage. Last year, he chartered the 50/50 club while becoming the first full-time designated hitter to win an MVP. This year, he’s slashing .292/.386/.625 while on pace for 54 home runs, matching a career high he set the season before.
His stolen-base rate, though, is down to 26 — 33 fewer than what he tallied in 2024. Ohtani stole his 11th base on May 20 and hasn’t recorded one since. His caution on the bases has coincided with the escalation of his pitching rehab. Roberts said he didn’t know if there was a direct correlation, and Ohtani, who rarely does interviews, hasn’t been made available to speak on it. But the drop-off emphasizes the endurance required to hit and pitch simultaneously.
The Dodgers have been guided by that thought.
“I can’t imagine how tiring it is to do both,” Friedman said. “It’s one thing when you’re in that rhythm of it and you are in shape for that. But it’s been a while since he did both, and this is pretty uncharted because we’ve never been around a guy that does both at this level. And so it’s just trying to do everything we can to build up the muscles in the right arm but also build up the endurance from a body standpoint of doing both and not fatiguing him in a way that makes his offense suffer.”
When Ohtani first joined the Dodgers and began his hitting progression in the spring of 2024, almost all of his swings were precisely 70 mph. Later that summer, when he began to play catch with more intensity, he made a habit of guessing the precise velocity of his throws and was almost always right. Brandon McDaniel, who was the Dodgers’ strength and conditioning coach and director of player performance before being elevated to the coaching staff this season, has spent two decades working with elite athletes and has never met one as in tune with his body as Ohtani.
“It’s almost like he has a monitor to his engine, in front, like a dashboard,” McDaniel said.
Most are good at following the scripts mapped out for their rehabs, McDaniel explained, but Ohtani doesn’t seem to need one. His feel for what his body requires in a given moment is unparalleled. And so for as careful as the Dodgers have been with Ohtani’s pitching progression, they’ve also become unafraid that he’ll go too hard and set himself back. Through that, a trust has developed.
“He obviously wants to push; he’s been pushing,” McDaniel said. “But it’s just been such a great balance of taking very calculated strikes of when we’re going to push and when we’re going to add velo and when we’re going to add spin, things like that. And ultimately, because he’s a two-way player, we don’t have a clock. And so when he feels like he’s ready, that’s the first part of the conversation.”
The Dodgers deployed a franchise-record 40 pitchers during the 2024 season, then rode a three-man rotation and continual bullpen games to a championship. This year was supposed to be different, and yet it has been eerily similar. Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki, three starters who were expected to front one of the best rotations in the sport, are all out with shoulder-related ailments, joining 11 other pitchers on the injured list. The Dodgers have already used 30 players to pitch, more than any other team in the sport. Their bullpen leads the majors in innings by a wide margin.
But Ohtani looms in the background, his pitching return quickly becoming close enough to envision. The buildup alone has been remarkable. His simulated games, which will continue to grow in volume on a weekly basis, usually end roughly four hours before the first pitch, after which Ohtani navigates a maintenance program on his left shoulder and right elbow while the rest of the Dodgers’ hitters prepare for that night’s starting pitcher. Then, like he used to so often, he grabs a bat and flips a switch.
Ohtani is 4-for-11 with a home run following his three simulated games this season, a snapshot of what’s to come.
“It’s fun to watch him because he enjoys the game so much,” Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia said. “He loves baseball. And when you’re doing both, you have to love it the way he does.”
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Jesse Rogers
The last-place Washington Nationals fired president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez, the team announced Sunday.
Rizzo, 64, and Martinez, 60, won a World Series with the Nationals in 2019, but the team has floundered in recent years. This season, the Nationals are 37-53 and stuck at the bottom of the National League East after getting swept by the Boston Red Sox this weekend at home. Washington hasn’t finished higher than fourth in the division since winning the World Series.
“On behalf of our family and the Washington Nationals organization, I first and foremost want to thank Mike and Davey for their contributions to our franchise and our city,” principal owner Mark Lerner said in a statement. “Our family is eternally grateful for their years of dedication to the organization, including their roles in bringing a World Series trophy to Washington, D.C.
“While we are appreciative of their past successes, the on-field performance has not been where we or our fans expect it to be. This is a pivotal time for our club, and we believe a fresh approach and new energy is the best course of action for our team moving forward.”
Mike DeBartolo, the club’s senior vice president and assistant general manager, was named interim GM on Sunday night. DeBartolo will oversee all aspects of baseball operations, including the MLB draft. An announcement will be made on the interim manager Monday, a day before the club begins a series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Rizzo has been the top decision-maker in Washington since 2013, and Martinez has been on board since 2018. Under Rizzo’s leadership, the team made the postseason four times: in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019. The latter season was Martinez’s lone playoff appearance.
“When our family assumed control of the team, nearly 20 years ago, Mike was the first hire we made,” Lerner said. “Over two decades, he was with us as we went from a fledging team in a new city to World Series champion. Mike helped make us who we are as an organization, and we’re so thankful to him for his hard work and dedication — not just on the field and in the front office, but in the community as well.”
The Nationals are in the midst of a rebuild that has moved slower than expected, though the team didn’t augment its young core much during the winter. Led by All-Stars James Wood and MacKenzie Gore, Washington has the second-youngest group of hitters in MLB and the sixth-youngest pitching staff.
The team lost 11 straight games in a forgettable stretch last month. And during a 2-10 run in June, Washington averaged just 2.5 runs. Since June 1, the Nationals have scored one run or been shut out seven times. In Sunday’s 6-4 loss to Boston, they left 15 runners on base.
There was industry speculation over the winter that the Nationals would spend money on free agents for the first time in several years, but that never materialized. Instead, the team made minor moves, signing free agents Josh Bell and Michael Soroka, trading for first baseman Nathaniel Lowe and re-signing closer Kyle Finnegan. Now, the hope is a new management team, both on and off the field, can help change the franchise’s fortunes.
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David Schoenfield
The rosters for the 2025 MLB All-Star Game will feature 19 first-timers — and one legend — as the pitchers and reserves were announced Sunday for the July 15 contest at Truist Park in Atlanta.
Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw, a three-time Cy Young Award winner who made his first All-Star team in 2011, was named to his 11th National League roster as a special commissioner’s selection.
Kershaw, who became only the fourth left-hander to amass 3,000 career strikeouts, is 4-0 with a 3.43 ERA in nine starts after beginning the season on the injured list. He joins Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera as a legend choice, after the pair of sluggers were selected in 2022.
Kershaw said he didn’t want to discuss the selection Sunday.
Among the first-time All-Stars announced Sunday: Dodgers teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto; Washington Nationals outfielder James Wood and left-hander MacKenzie Gore; Houston Astros ace Hunter Brown and shortstop Jeremy Pena; and Chicago Cubs 34-year-old left-hander Matthew Boyd.
“It’ll just be cool being around some of the best players in the game,” Wood said.
First-time All-Stars previously elected to start by the fans include Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson, Baltimore Orioles designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn and Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.
Overall, the 19 first-time All-Stars is a drop from the 32 first-time selections on the initial rosters in 2024.
Kershaw would be the sentimental choice to start for the National League, although Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes, who leads NL pitchers in ERA and WAR, might be in line to start his second straight contest. Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler, a three-time All-Star, is 9-3 with a 2.17 ERA after Sunday’s complete-game victory and also would be a strong candidate to start.
“I think it would be stupid to say no to that. It’s a pretty cool opportunity,” Skenes said about the possibility of being asked to start by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “I didn’t make plans over the All-Star break or anything. So, yeah, I’m super stoked.”
Kershaw has made one All-Star start in his career, in 2022 at Dodger Stadium.
Among standout players not selected were New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto, who signed a $765 million contract as a free agent in the offseason, and Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts, who had made eight consecutive All-Star rosters since 2016.
Soto got off to a slow start but was the National League Player of the Month in June and entered Sunday ranked sixth in the NL in WAR among position players while ranking second in OBP, eighth in OPS and third in runs scored.
The players vote for the reserves at each position and selected Wood, Corbin Carroll of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres as the backup outfielders. Kyle Stowers also made it as a backup outfielder as the representative for the Miami Marlins.
Unless Soto later is added as an injury replacement, he’ll miss his first All-Star Game since his first full season in 2019.
The Dodgers lead all teams with five representatives: Kershaw, Yamamoto and starters Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith. The AL-leading Detroit Tigers (57-34) and Mariners have four each.
Tigers ace Tarik Skubal will join AL starters Riley Greene, Gleyber Torres and Javier Baez, while Raleigh, the AL’s starting catcher, will be joined by Seattle teammates Bryan Woo, Andres Munoz and Julio Rodriguez.
Earning his fifth career selection but first since 2021 is Texas Rangers righty Jacob deGrom, who is finally healthy after making only nine starts in his first two seasons with the Rangers and is 9-2 with a 2.13 ERA. He has never started an All-Star Game, although Skubal or Brown would be the favorite to start for the AL.
The hometown Braves will have three All-Stars in Acuna, pitcher Chris Sale (his ninth selection, tied with Freeman for the second most behind Kershaw) and first baseman Matt Olson. The San Francisco Giants had three pitchers selected: Logan Webb, Robbie Ray and reliever Randy Rodriguez.
The slumping New York Yankees ended up with three All-Stars: Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Max Fried. The Mets also earned three All-Star selections: Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz.
“Red carpet, that’s my thing,” Chisholm said. “I do have a ‘fit in mind.”
Rosters are expanded from 26 to 32 for the All-Star Game. They include starters elected by fans, 17 players (five starting pitchers, three relievers and a backup for each position) chosen in a player vote and six players (four pitchers and two position players) selected by league officials. Every club must be represented.
Acuna, Wood and Raleigh are the three All-Stars who have so far committed to participating in the Home Run Derby.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — The New York Yankees were seemingly in deep trouble Sunday when Juan Soto cracked a pitch to left field in the seventh inning.
The New York Mets, down two runs, were cooking up a rally with no outs. Francisco Lindor stood at first base, Pete Alonso loomed on deck, and Brandon Nimmo was in the hole. This was the heart of the Mets’ potent lineup. Given the Yankees’ recent woes, fumbling their two-run lead and suffering a Subway Series sweep at the hands of their neighbors — and a seventh straight loss — seemed almost fated.
Then Cody Bellinger charged Soto’s sinking 105 mph line drive, made a shoestring catch and fired a strike to first base for an improbable double play to secure a skid-snapping 6-4 win — and perhaps rescue the Yankees from another dreadful outcome.
“Considering the context of this week and everything,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, “that’s probably our play of the year so far.”
Soto’s line drive off Mark Leiter Jr. had a 10% catch probability, according to Statcast, but Bellinger, a plus defender at multiple positions who started at first base Saturday, was just able to snatch it before it touched the grass. Certain that he caught it clean, he made an 89.9 mph toss that reached first baseman Paul Goldschmidt on a line, over Lindor, who didn’t slide into the bag.
“I saw it in the air and had a really good beat on it,” said Bellinger, who went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk at the plate.
The Mets challenged the catch, but the call stood.
“That was incredible,” said Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge, who swatted his 33rd home run of the season in the fifth inning. “I’ve never seen something like that on the field.”
For the past week, a stretch Boone described as “terrible” for his ballclub, poor defense has been an issue for the Yankees. Physical errors. Mental lapses. Near disasters. The sloppiness helped sink a depleted pitching staff, more than offsetting the offense’s strong production.
That combination produced the team’s second six-game losing streak in three weeks and a three-game deficit in the American League East standings behind the first-place Toronto Blue Jays.
The surging Blue Jays won again Sunday to extend their winning streak to seven games and keep their division lead at three games, but Bellinger’s glove and arm ensured it didn’t grow to four.
“That was an unbelievable play,” Goldschmidt said. “Amazing catch and absolute cannon to me at first. To make that play was a game-changing play and potentially game-winning play for us today. And we needed it.”
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