Ohtani resumes playing catch, keeping regular-season return to mound on table

PHOENIX — After a layoff of more than two weeks, Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani started a throwing progression by playing catch on the field ahead of Saturday night’s game against the D-backs at Chase Field.

Ohtani began his throwing session by throwing plyos in the visitors’ bullpen before progressing to catch on the field. He looked to throw out to around 90 feet in the first time he has been seen throwing since a July 22 bullpen session in Philadelphia, after which he was shut down.

The last time Ohtani started a game on the mound was more than a month ago, on July 3. He went 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA through 14 starts, but lingering soreness in his left knee has kept him off the mound. Ohtani has continued to serve as the Dodgers’ designated hitter in the meantime, maintaining that his knee — as well as a minor right biceps issue — has not bothered him as much at the plate.

“It’s getting pretty good day by day,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton after his multihomer performance on Wednesday. “It’s hard to tell at this point what the schedule is going to look like. … Rather than rush the progression of this, I would rather make sure we’re headed in the right direction. But making sure we’re taking the right steps.”

Now that Ohtani has begun throwing, there is some additional clarity to how his progression could look. He will need several days to continue stretching out his catch play by throwing out to greater distances. Once he’s advanced to long toss, Ohtani can begin a bullpen progression. After that, he’ll face live hitters before easing back into games at the big league level, similar to how he did last season.

It’s unclear how long this process will take. When Ohtani was rehabbing from a second major elbow surgery last year, the bullpen progression alone took months, but he threw only three live sessions before pitching in a game. The Dodgers don’t have months remaining at this point in the season. Ideally, Ohtani would get on the mound at some point in early to mid-September in order to have longer to build up his arm.

Depending on how Ohtani’s return to pitching goes, he seems more likely to be used as a multi-inning opener for the Dodgers rather than a full starter upon his return during the regular season. The same could potentially be true during the postseason.

“Any inning, any innings we get from him are bonuses, given he’s a two-way player,” manager Dave Roberts said earlier in the week. “So I think whether it’s one inning, two innings, three innings, I’m not too concerned about the timeline.”

The Dodgers can’t think too far ahead about how Ohtani will be used as a pitcher until he’s further along in his progression. His catch play on Saturday was the first of many steps toward that end goal of getting back on the mound.