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If any other hitter was coming back from a shoulder operation, there would be concerns. If any other pitcher was returning from a season-long absence spent recovering from a second elbow reconstruction, there would be tempered expectations.
Shohei Ohtani will encounter both obstacles this year, but the widespread assumption is that he’ll continue launching 450-foot homers and pumping 100-mph fastballs.
“Shohei’s going to be Shohei,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said.
How realistic is that? How realistic is it that Ohtani will remain the same player who has won three most valuable player awards? How realistic is it that he’ll be the same hitter he was last year, and the same pitcher he was the year before that, when he’s coming back from two major surgeries?
“I just don’t see how he’s not,” Freeman said.
While Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani are expected to be healthy for the Dodgers season opener, fans really want to know if Kiké Hernández will be back.
Freeman pointed to how Ohtani played on after he partially dislocated his left shoulder when he was caught stealing second base in Game 2 of the World Series against the New York Yankees.
“He played two days later,” Freeman said. “I had to touch him in Game 3 to make sure he was real. When you pop your shoulder out like he did and you tear something, you usually can’t raise your arm above your head. I watched him walk in on a workout day in New York and raise his arm completely over his head. I was, like, ‘How is this man doing this?’”
Ohtani played the remainder of the series.
“So I would never put anything past Shohei,” Freeman said.
Four days after the Dodgers celebrated their championship with a downtown parade, Ohtani underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum. The operation was performed by the same doctor who twice repaired his right elbow, Dr. Neal ElAttrache.
A torn labrum altered the career trajectory of former Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp. The same was true for Cody Bellinger, another former Dodgers outfielder who now plays for the New York Yankees.
Kemp and Bellinger said their shoulders felt tight after their operations.
“The shoulder surgery was kind of a complicated surgery, the joint is in a complicated place,” Ohtani said. “From the standpoint of expanding my range of motion, I had to do more than with the elbow.”
But whereas Kemp and Bellinger injured their lead shoulders, the left-handed-hitting Ohtani hurt his back shoulder.
“For Shohei, batting left-handed, it being his back shoulder is less of a concern,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Ohtani has started hitting off tees, and Roberts has examined some videos of him swinging the bat.
“You just wouldn’t think that there was any surgery this past winter,” Roberts said.
The numbers make the same case, as Ohtani’s batted balls off tees are traveling faster than 100 mph.
“It’s still north of any player we have right now,” Roberts said.
Ohtani finished last season with 54 home runs, a career high. Referring to how Ohtani’s wife is pregnant, Freeman joked, “Now, he’s got dad strength coming, so maybe he’ll hit 60 this year.”
The journey to recover his All-Star form as a pitcher could be the harder task, as coming back from a second Tommy John surgery is a monumental undertaking.
Walker Buehler faced that challenge last year, and before he became a postseason hero for the Dodgers, the right-hander posted a 1-6 record and 5.38 earned-run average in 16 regular-season starts. The only starting pitchers known to undergo a second elbow reconstruction and return to their previous performance levels are Nathan Eovaldi and Jameson Taillon.
Roberts already ruled out Ohtani pitching in the season-opening series against the Chicago Cubs on March 18 and 19, and Ohtani was vague when asked about when he could make his first start.
“We’ve only made rough plans,” Ohtani said. “I think we’ll decide [on a timeline] when I return after I throw bullpen sessions in camp.”
Ohtani last pitched in 2023 when he was still with the Angels. He was 10-5 with a 3.13 ERA in 23 starts, but tore his ulnar collateral ligament in a late-August start. He underwent surgery a month later.
The first time Ohtani had his elbow reconstructed was in his rookie year in 2018. He attempted to pitch in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season but was limited to two ineffective starts.
This time around, Ohtani said he feels more comfortable. He briefly paused his throwing program when his shoulder was repaired in November and again last month when a wildfire forced him, his wife and his world-famous dog to evacuate from their home for two weeks. Ohtani said his living situation wasn’t what kept him from working out.
“I was bedridden with the flu at the time,” he said.
With spring training starting next week, Ohtani said he was optimistic about his condition. Freeman also was upbeat.
Freeman offered a reminder that Ohtani already has done the unimaginable by pitching and hitting at elite levels in the major leagues.
“I wouldn’t put anything past the man,” Freeman said.
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