Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Shohei Ohtani’s Pitching Return Makes Everything Bigger

Of course everyone watched

Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

It was just 22 pitches. But Shohei Ohtani hasn’t thrown that many from a mound to live hitters since 2023. And it’s Shohei Ohtani.

So yes, we are glazing a live BP. Because it’s Shohei Ohtani. That’s what happens when the biggest attraction in baseball does anything even remotely new. A routine step in rehab turns into a spectacle. Dodgers teammates crowded behind the cage. Mets players peeked in from their dugout. The whole thing had the energy of something far more consequential than a simulated inning.

Griffin Canning, Carlos Mendoza & Jesse Winker are in the dugout to watch Shohei Ohtani’s live BP session on the mound at Citi Field pic.twitter.com/g75K5B4wTZ
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) May 25, 2025

On Sunday afternoon at Citi Field, Shohei Ohtani stepped back into something resembling his old self. He faced Dodgers teammates in a live batting practice session – his first since undergoing elbow surgery in September 2023. It drew lots of attention, like Shohei Ohtani usually does, because Shohei Ohtani was pitching again.

Absurd movement on this pitch during Shohei Ohtani's live BP 🔥 pic.twitter.com/NMHEmoX1y8
— MLB (@MLB) May 25, 2025

He worked through his full mix: fastballs sitting at 94-95 mph and touching 97, along with cutters, sinkers, sweepers, and splitters. Cameras caught one pitch, a sharp offspeed strikeout, that ended with a small fist pump.

Shohei Ohtani Won’t Go on a Rehab Assignment

The Dodgers aren’t sending him on a rehab assignment. Like the Angels did after his 2018 elbow surgery, they’ll keep him close, building him up through simulated games while he remains in the lineup as a hitter. They don’t want to lose the bat, and it’s hard to blame them – Shohei Ohtani hit his 18th home run of the season just a few hours later, tying him with Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead.

Shohei Ohtani starts off #SundayNightBaseball with a BANG❗️ pic.twitter.com/Hw8Jb4zNO8
— MLB (@MLB) May 25, 2025

That homer came on the second pitch of the game from Kodai Senga. It was also the Dodgers’ only run in a 3-1 loss. Before the injury in 2023, Shohei Ohtani had thrown 132 innings with a 3.14 ERA and 167 strikeouts. From 2021 to 2023, he posted a 2.84 ERA across 428 1/3 innings with 542 strikeouts. Those are frontline-starter numbers.

ALSO READ: Is Pitching Worth the Risk for Dodgers’ Star Shohei Ohtani?

If he can return to that version of himself on the mound, the Dodgers will be getting much more than their money’s worth on a $700 million deal that has already proved profitable enough with a bat almost enough to get them a World Series ring. If Shohei Ohtani is back as a pitcher, and is able to do the numbers he’s done before, the Dodgers will be potentially adding a top-tier pitcher to a rotation that’s needed one – along with what Shohei Ohtani provides with the bat. This is what Shohei Ohtani has the power to do, and maybe with him not pitching since 2023, that’s something that people forgot.

PITCHER SHOHEI OHTANI HAS ARRIVED 🚨
pic.twitter.com/4XCs6ytqAJ
— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) May 25, 2025

Sunday was the first real sign of what’s coming.

Dodgers

Shohei Ohtani

Mohsin Baldiwala

mlb

Mohsin Baldiwala is a Master’s student in Journalism and freelance content producer who got hooked on baseball through Seinfeld’s hapless George Costanza. The same reason why he’s a Yankees fan. He writes about sports because he believes it can offer a brief escape from the world’s chaos. Even if that means enduring the heartbreak of the 2024 World Series.