Ohtani 'right where they needed him to be' in 3rd 'pen session

LOS ANGELES -- Shohei Ohtani threw his third bullpen session of the season on Saturday afternoon ahead of the Dodgers’ home game against the Cubs. And while his return to the mound is still a ways away, it’s another step in the right direction as Ohtani resumes his buildup.

“Came out of it well,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I think it’s just going to continue to build up, build on that. And we’ll see where he goes from there.”

Ohtani threw around 30 pitches, continuing to build on his pitch counts of 20 and 26 from his bullpen sessions on March 29 and April 5, respectively. The focus of Saturday’s session was on Ohtani’s four-seam and two-seam fastballs and splitter.

Roberts was pleased with Ohtani’s command and velocity, which reached 90-92 mph.

“Velocity was good,” Roberts said. “I think that they want to keep him right around 90 miles an hour. … He was right where they needed him to be.”

Ohtani is coming off his second major right elbow surgery in September 2023, and his left shoulder shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum after the 2024 World Series further delayed his offseason program.

Roberts had originally floated around May as a possible return for Ohtani pitching, but his progression was shut down during Spring Training in order to focus on hitting ahead of the Tokyo Series.

"I wanted to prioritize the hitting aspect as we're getting into the season, to get a little breather mentally and physically on the pitching side of things," Ohtani previously said through interpreter Will Ireton in a press conference ahead of the season-opening Tokyo Series. "This is according to plan, and I'm quite actually pleased with how things have been going."

While there hasn’t been an update on a possible return window for Ohtani since resuming his ramp-up, Roberts did outline what his next steps look like on Saturday. It starts with Ohtani incorporating the slider into his bullpen sessions, although Roberts doesn’t know when that might actually happen.

After that, the next step would be for Ohtani to throw up-and-down bullpen sessions, which would then progress into facing hitters.

“So we still got a long time,” Roberts said.

The team has stressed before that the priority is for Ohtani to stay on the field as much as possible and be at his best as both a hitter and pitcher as they go down the stretch of the regular season and into the postseason.

And though the Dodgers didn’t mention anything in that regard on Saturday, it also doesn’t appear as though the recent IL stint for Blake Snell has changed their stance on that at all.

"[Ohtani’s] health is paramount, most important," Roberts previously told reporters. "So whenever that time is and his buildup reaches its full maturation, he’ll pitch for us."