After nearly two years away from the mound, Shohei Ohtani is finally getting closer to pitching at the major league level again. The question isn’t whether he can still dominate hitters — it’s whether the Los Angeles Dodgers actually need (or want) him to.
Ohtani recently took a significant step forward by throwing 22 pitches to five batters in a simulated game before the team’s matchup with the New York Mets last week, marking his first time facing hitters off a mound since his elbow surgery in September 2023. That was before he threw two innings of live batting practice to Los Angeles minor league batters before Saturday’s middle game against the Yankees.









