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Across the miles, Dodgers keeping tabs on Shohei Ohtani’s pitching buildup

March 14, 2026

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Hundreds of miles have separated Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers for the past three weeks. But they’ve kept in touch.

“I haven’t talked to him. We had a meeting before he left just to try and lay out some general parameters if he could do these things,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said of monitoring Ohtani’s pitching buildup as the two-way star participates (but doesn’t pitch) in the World Baseball Classic.

“He’s been able to accomplish those things. We get Trackman reports. We know how many pitches he’s thrown, we know the velocity, we have a general idea of the movements. We get some cellphone videos and stuff from Will Ireton (who is working with Team Japan during the tournament) and Possum (Yosuke Nakajima, a Dodgers trainer), who was in Tokyo as well.

“We’ve been able to track what’s going on and talk with Will to see how he’s responding. That’s kind of how we’re staying in touch.”

Ohtani threw a bullpen session during Team Japan’s pool play games in Tokyo. The team moved to Miami this week for the quarterfinals (Japan will face Venezuela on Saturday), Ohtani took the mound during Team Japan’s workout and threw 59 pitches in four simulated innings against Japanese hitters.

Considering all the challenges, Ohtani is “where he needs to be” in building up to open the season in the Dodgers’ starting rotation, Prior said.

“Obviously, he’s not in real spring training, Cactus League games,” Prior said. “But he is getting the volume and the workload and I think the intensity, the most he can get out of it, is showing up in the velocity. He’s in the mid-90s. Everything is tracking from where he left. So I think from that standpoint, we’ve probably got the best possible outcome for what he’s trying to accomplish in the midst of this tournament.

“I think moving forward now we’re kind of in a weird gray area. Do they advance? How far do they advance? If they go all the way then obviously camp is winding down (in Arizona) and we’re trying to line it up. So right now we’re kind of in a holding pattern. He’ll probably throw a bullpen in the next couple days just to keep himself fresh. Then we’ll just see how the rest of the tournament progresses.”

If defending champion Team Japan reaches the WBC championship game on Tuesday, Ohtani (and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who will start Saturday) might pitch in the Freeway Series as a final tune-up before the regular season. That might push their first regular-season starts back a bit, into the Dodgers’ second series of the season (at home against the Cleveland Guardians).

“I think ideally he’s pitching somewhere during the Freeway Series,” Prior said of Ohtani. “Is it a next step of four or five innings – probably that’s undetermined right now. If they’re back early, maybe he makes one start here (in Arizona) and makes another one in the Freeway Series. If they go all the way, maybe we repeat what he just did (a sim game) because so much time will have been off since he faced hitters. A lot of open-ended questions. We have some contingency plans in place.”

Prior said the expectation is either Ohtani or Yamamoto will start during the season-opening series March 26-28 against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

FEELS BIGGER

Even though he can’t play while recovering from elbow surgery, Dodgers utility man Kiké Hernandez joined Team Puerto Rico for the pool-play portion of the World Baseball Classic in Puerto Rico and will rejoin the team for its quarterfinal this weekend in Houston.

After one of the pool-play games, Hernandez spoke with the media and said (in Spanish), that he thought the WBC “feels bigger” than playing in the World Series.

“The atmosphere, crowd. You’re representing your country. You’re not representing your home city. You don’t always choose who you play for. Sometimes that’s not in your control,” he explained during his brief stopover at Dodgers camp this week. “But when you’re representing your country and playing along with your homies – sometimes you’re playing along with people that you grew up with. People back home are rooting for you at times. When you’re playing in the United States, you’re playing for different teams that, sometimes they’re rooting against you.

“For us, coming from a little island, the things we can do for our island while the tournament is going on, it becomes a lot bigger than baseball to where it doesn’t always feel that way when you’re playing for an organization in Major League Baseball.”

ALSO

Brusdar Graterol has restarted his throwing progression after having a setback early in camp. The reliever had right shoulder surgery following the 2024 season but has had recurring pain in the shoulder at times. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Graterol is pain-free now.

“I think we were all disappointed a couple weeks ago when he tried to ramp it up and had a setback,” Roberts said. “I know he was disappointed as well. But he’s doing everything he can.”

Orange County Register

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Across the miles, Dodgers keeping tabs on Shohei Ohtani’s pitching buildup

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