PHILADELPHIA -- Shohei Ohtani threw a 26-pitch bullpen session ahead of Saturday's game against the Phillies, continuing his buildup toward an eventual return to the mound. The timeline for Ohtani to return as a pitcher is to be determined.
Ohtani still isn't throwing his entire pitch mix, but pitching coach Mark Prior said he mixed in a couple of splitters for the first time since pausing his progression on the mound to focus on ramping up as a hitter ahead of the season-opening Tokyo Series.
Last Saturday, Ohtani threw his first bullpen session since Feb. 25. He had a lighter "touch-and-feel" session on the mound on Thursday before his full one at Citizens Bank Park, which is the expected weekly schedule he'll follow going forward.
The team is still slowplaying Ohtani's return to the mound somewhat, manager Dave Roberts acknowledged, but the intention is to have him throw on a regular schedule.
"It's a week, but then there's also the one in between, where he touches the mound on a Thursday," Roberts said. "And I think it's just more trying to keep him on a similar seven-day program, and what the schedule would look [like] going out, and build from there."
Ohtani is coming off his second major right elbow surgery in September 2023, as well as left shoulder surgery last November that delayed his offseason work.
Once Ohtani returns to a big league mound, the Dodgers are planning to use a six-man rotation, which they'll be able to do without being a man short in the bullpen because of Ohtani's two-way player designation.
Roberts had said early in Spring Training that the goal was to bring back Ohtani as a pitcher sometime in May, but the team has kept the timeline open-ended since Ohtani paused his pitching rampup.
The Dodgers will have a better sense of when Ohtani can join the rotation once he progresses to facing live hitters -- which he did not do during Spring Training -- and there's no target date for that milestone yet. Roberts would like to see Ohtani use his entire pitch mix before facing hitters, and throw north of 30 pitches in a bullpen session.