Shohei Ohtani is the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ World Series champion, and he’s heading to the World Baseball Classic ready to do damage. He’s hitting for Team Japan while quietly ramping up his arm through a carefully mapped progression that included a 99-mph live session and already has electric spring footage circulating everywhere. The Los Angeles Dodgers won’t let Ohtani pitch in the WBC — but as Katie Woo of The Athletic detailed, the Los Angeles Dodgers have built a plan to keep his arm on schedule for MLB Opening Day.
Ohtani concluded his stay at Camelback Ranch before “departing for Japan either Sunday night or Monday morning,” per Woo. He threw roughly 30 pitches over two simulated innings and topped out at 99 mph, striking out both Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman in the process, per Jack Harris of the California Post.
Ohtani didn’t throw a single pitch in 2024 while recovering from his second career Tommy John surgery, and he tossed just 47 innings last season. Surely, the Los Angeles Dodgers have a well-thought-out plan for their generational talent to handle across the next couple of weeks.
How the Los Angeles Dodgers Will Keep Ohtani’s Arm on Track
Here’s where this gets interesting for Dodgers fans. Mark Prior has been building a custom pitching roadmap with Ohtani for the WBC, and the team wants him to squeeze in a pair of additional live bullpen outings while Japan has off days in the tournament, per Harris.
“We’ve talked about it, had conversations with him, and kind of mapped out some tentative schedules,” Prior said, per Harris. “A lot of it will depend, as usual with him, on where he’s at, what are the logistics of everything … But if we can get two more outings out of him, that would be ideal.”
Ohtani knows the challenges. He’ll only be used as a DH in the WBC, so he has to find windows for bullpen work and simulated sessions on his own time. “I’ll do everything in my power to make sure the quality and the volume are in a good place,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton, per Woo. “With the limited opportunities I do have, being in a live situation, I just have to do the best I can in those situations.”
Ohtani Touched 99 MPH — And He’s Showing Off More Than Last Year
The stuff is real. Prior told Harris that Ohtani is already incorporating his full pitch mix this spring — a significant jump from 2025, when he mostly relied on a fastball-slider-sweeper combination while easing back from surgery, per Harris.
“Last year’s bullpens, from a velocity and intensity standpoint, he was very conservative,” Prior said, per Harris. “I think now, he feels he’s far enough removed to where he’s been able to push it. You’re seeing a more regular version of him.”
The numbers from 2025 tell you why the Dodgers are being so calculated. Ohtani made just 14 starts, posting a 2.87 ERA with 62 strikeouts and 9 walks across 47.0 innings, per Baseball Reference.
That’s dominant efficiency — but those are workload-managed innings from a pitcher who hadn’t thrown in a game since 2023 before last season. This spring is about building toward a full season in a Dodgers rotation that also features Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Emmet Sheehan, and Roki Sasaki.
What This Means for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2026
The short answer: the Dodgers are thinking October, not March. Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, told reporters he expects Ohtani to open the year in the rotation, per Woo. But how far Japan goes in the WBC tournament — which runs March 5–17 across Tokyo, Houston, San Juan, and Miami — will dictate exactly where Ohtani lands on the pitching schedule when he returns.
“We have designs of playing through October this year, and Shohei being a big part of that on the mound,” Friedman said, per Woo. “That, coupled with the idea that he wants to pitch for the next eight years, we want him to pitch for the next eight years, just trying to be really mindful of all of that.”
The last time Ohtani pitched in a WBC, he struck out Mike Trout on a full-count sweeper to clinch the 2023 championship for Japan. When asked if the competitor in him might lobby to pitch in a potential ninth inning of the gold medal game this time around, Ohtani cracked a smile, per Woo. “Hard to say. But if Trout shows up, it’s tempting.”
Los Angeles Dodgers Reveal Shohei Ohtani’s WBC Pitching Plan