Dodgers’ Andrew Friedman to meet with Shohei Ohtani to discuss pitching: report

There’s been a lot of talk recently about Shohei Ohtani pitching in the playoffs, but the two-way superstar hasn’t been part of those conversations. Until now.

“There’s been no discussion with the pitching coach about pitching in the postseason,” Ohtani said through his interpreter this week. “But we’re going to have a meeting in Los Angeles to discuss the overall progression of the rehab.”

According to Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, the meeting between the two has nothing to do with Ohtani pitching this year.

“The meeting is about how his rehab is progressing and what the timeline is to get him ready for next year, which has always been the plan,” Friedman said. “If you take away from what’s going on with the Dodgers, right now he’s thrown about five bullpens, which is January, late January in his progression (in a normal offseason preparation) and October lines up at some point in the middle to late season for live BPs like pitchers do when they come into spring training.

“The question is whether we do them then (in October) or in November, but making sure he gets enough rest before the start of the following year. That’s something we’ve been thinking about since spring training.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts recently made headlines by not ruling out the possibility of using Ohtani as a reliever in October. Friedman was more pessimistic.

“We’re not even thinking about it right now,” Friedman said. “Again, it’s like January for him. He just came off Tommy John a year ago.

“For me, it’s not really an option.”

Ohtani has thrown six times from the mound and used his arm for just 30 pitches. He just threw three straight days for the first time when the Dodgers were at Atlanta on Monday and then at Miami on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“The meeting is about how do we manage his rehab so that he’s in the best position possible to be ready in 2025 while doing the least amount of damage to him in 2024 because he’s going to have a lot of work in October,” Friedman said. “Okay, if you put the rehab on hold at that point and do it in November, is that enough time or do you ramp it up and do it a little later (early next season)? That’s what we have to look at.”

“I don’t know the answer to that question.”