Could Shohei Ohtani pitch in relief in October? Here's what it would take

New York Times

17 hours ago

DENVER — Is there a scenario where Shohei Ohtani is pitching in relief for the Los Angeles Dodgers this postseason?
'Absolutely,' pitching coach Mark Prior told the Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday morning, though Prior clarified Wednesday afternoon that the discussions the organization has had about it have been limited solely to clarifying the language of the rulebook and Ohtani's ability to remain in the game as a hitter in such a scenario.
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Major League Baseball's 'Ohtani Rule,' which was written for the 2022 season, specifies that a starting pitcher can remain in the game as a designated hitter even after being removed from the game as a pitcher. That does not apply the same way if the pitcher entered in relief; if Ohtani starts a game as a designated hitter and enters the game to pitch, removing him would mean taking him out of the game entirely and losing the designated hitter.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts added Wednesday that the concept of Ohtani pitching in relief in October has come up 'internally, just sort of exploring options.'
While Prior said on the program that the idea of Ohtani pitching in relief 'has been discussed,' those discussions, Prior said, came back in June as Ohtani was nearing his return to a big league mound. Ohtani had communicated to the organization that he would rather complete his build-up as a pitcher in big league games, so the team essentially had him start games as an opener while keeping his bat in the lineup.
"Can I see it? Absolutely." 👀
– #Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior on the potential of Shohei Ohtani coming out of the bullpen during the postseason. pic.twitter.com/Oeu1cTl82v
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) August 20, 2025
'Maybe it was me asking the question because I didn't have a clear understanding of the moment,' Prior said. 'But if we're using him for one inning, let's use him as a starter. We were trying to talk about how does that play as a reliever. When you read the rulebook, as clear as the rulebook can be at times, he has to be in the lineup as a starter/DH.'
The door remains open, regardless, that Ohtani could be used as a reliever at some point in October — it would just have to be in a situation where he would be recording the final outs of the game, such as to avoid the team removing his bat from the lineup.
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'I think at the end of the day if it gave us a chance to win a ballgame, whatever that added value, I think he would be all-in,' Prior said. 'Within reason. Because I do think he cares about winning ballgames. He cares about helping his team win on both sides of the baseball. So I think if it was presented in that situation, maybe he would. … Again, I don't know what that situation would be but in a kind of playoff, must-win, maybe that would.'
Ohtani has only pitched one time in relief since coming over to MLB in 2018, and it wasn't in a big league game; he recorded the final three outs for Samurai Japan to close out the 2023 World Baseball Classic after starting the game as a designated hitter.
'There's still a lot of things we have to get to before it even becomes somewhat tangible,' Roberts said.
Including, and most importantly, ensuring that Ohtani gets to October healthy as a starting pitcher, with the Dodgers right now essentially having their ideal group of postseason starting options all healthy between Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw.
Also relevant is that Ohtani continues to look as formidable as he has on the mound as he has thus far in his return from a second major elbow surgery. Through his first nine starts (23 1/3 innings), he has a 3.47 ERA and has struck out 32 batters while walking just five.
Among the measures the Dodgers have taken to monitor Ohtani, the pitcher, and his workload: while he's built up to five innings, he isn't expected to go any further than that, at least for the remainder of the regular season. Roberts and Prior each confirmed that is still the plan on Wednesday, before Ohtani was set to start on the mound against the Colorado Rockies.
'Right now it's five innings,' Prior said. 'Let's just continue to progress and keep getting him innings and starts and go from there. We'll have those discussions later on and Sho will have a lot of input on those decisions. But right now, it's five.'
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