LOS ANGELES — The latest plan for Shohei Ohtani involves a day this week when he is neither pitching nor hitting.
In an attempt to address Ohtani’s offensive struggles, and a recent home-run drought, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani will open Thursday night’s game against the San Francisco Giants on the bench as a way to get some “R and R.”
Rest and relaxation will be relative. Ohtani won’t be in the lineup as a hitter on Wednesday either, Roberts said, but he will take the mound as a starter.
On Thursday, Ohtani would still be available as a pinch hitter.
Even before the plan goes into practice, it already seems to be working. Ohtani hit a home run in the third inning on Tuesday, his first in 53 plate appearances.
Ohtani not only has been fighting his hitting mechanics, his uncanny ability to identify pitches also has failed him of late. Roberts does not deny that Ohtani looks fatigued as he returns to a full season of pitching and hitting.
“I think the fatigue is bleeding into the mechanics,” Roberts said. “I think that most players get that towards the end of the summer. And … it has probably shown itself a little earlier, as far as the tax on pitching and all that comes with hitting too.”
A turning point for his offensive downturn seems to have come when he was hit in the right shoulder by a 94-mph sinker from the New York Mets’ David Peterson on April 13. While Ohtani has pitched well since then, including allowing one run on two hits over six innings two days after he was hit by a pitch, his exit velocity has been down.
Ohtani’s exit velocity on balls in play over his first 15 games of the season was 94.0 mph, according to MLB Statcast. The day after he was hit by Peterson’s pitch, through Monday’s game against the Giants, Ohtani had an average exit velocity of 91.8 mph.
Ohtani’s home run Tuesday had a 105.9 mph exit velocity.
His average bat speed has been steady all season at 74.7 mph, but it is slightly below the past two seasons. Average bat speed across MLB is 71.7 mph this season.
“As far as the exit velocity, he’s catching the ball deeper in some instances on (pitches) that are at the belt, and catching the ball out front on balls that are down below with spin,” Roberts said. “So that’s sort of a bad combo, and makes sense for the lack of exit velo.”
Over his previous 26 games, Ohtani had just one home run, on April 26 against the Chicago Cubs. He went 59 plate appearances between home runs from April 12-26. Batting .233 with 16 RBIs for the season, he was just 4 for 36 at the plate this month through Monday.
Roberts has been trying to address the situation by not using Ohtani as a hitter on three occasions when he has been the starting pitcher. The plan for a day off Thursday takes things even further.
“For me, with any hitter, when the quality of at-bat starts to go down consistently, I think that’s a telling sign there needs to be a break,” Roberts said. “Because you’re just not able to – whether it’s the mechanics, the mind – just stay within your game plan, and then the chase starts to spike. There’s a workload component with some players, but that are more on the defensive side.”
Roberts got his first taste of managing Ohtani as a player and pitcher last season. Now he is getting a look at it from the first day of the season, all while Ohtani is pitching six innings per week and not the light pitching schedule he started with last season when he returned to the mound.
“I’m learning that you have to be proactive,” Roberts said. “He’s always gonna want to do more. He always has that sense of responsibility to his teammates, that he wants to be out there both ways. So I’ve learned that I have to be proactive and take it out of his hands, like with most great players.”
While Ohtani hit 54 home runs in 2024 and 55 more last season, he is on pace to hit 24 this season. As a pitcher, Ohtani has worked himself into the early Cy Young Award discussion with a 0.97 ERA through six outings (37 innings), with 42 strikeouts.
Doing double duty seems to be taking its toll after less than two months, but Roberts would not have it any other way.
“It definitely feels sustainable,” the manager said of his star’s two-way duty. “I wouldn’t say it’s more difficult. I think we all came in knowing that we had to read and react. It was gonna be fluid. It should be. It’s very unique. … No one thought it was gonna be easy. No one thought it was gonna be linear.”
INTO THE SWING
Outfielder Alek Thomas, who was acquired in a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks for 17-year-old outfield prospect Jose Requena, will be on standby in the minor leagues as the club works on his swing mechanics.
“Our expectation is that we do a deep dive on his swing and try to figure out if there’s some things we can unlock,” Roberts said.
Thomas, 26, was optioned to the Arizona Complex League before an eventual assignment at Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Thomas had 28 career home runs and a .230 batting average in five seasons with the Diamondbacks but was batting just .181 in 28 games this season. He has elite range as a center fielder.
“If the opportunity presents itself, (we will) get him up here,” Roberts said. “We’ve always liked him and thought highly of him.”
UP NEXT
Giants (LHP Robbie Ray, 3-4, 2.76 ERA) at Dodgers (RHP Shohei Ohtani, 2-2, 0.97), Wednesday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM, 1020 AM