{"id":1327,"date":"2026-07-22T23:49:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T23:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1327"},"modified":"2026-07-22T23:49:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T23:49:57","slug":"dodgers-encouraged-by-shohei-ohtani-bullpen-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1327","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers encouraged by Shohei Ohtani bullpen session"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dodgers<\/div>

<\/p>\n

\n

PHILADELPHIA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/span>Shohei Ohtani<\/a> wrapped up long toss in the Citizens Bank Park outfield Wednesday afternoon, turned and headed for the two-story bullpen stairs.<\/p>\n

Ohtani had initially been scheduled to take the mound for the Dodgers <\/a>Wednesday against the Phillies. But, with the date of his next pitching start up in the air, his bullpen session still drew a lot of eyes.<\/p>\n

Ohtani threw off a mound Wednesday for the first time since receiving an Orthovisc injection<\/a> in his left knee to lubricate the joint. The side session of about 30 pitches, running through multiple pitch types, was similar to a normal between-starts bullpen, pitching coach Mark Prior<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked good,\u201d Prior said. \u201cFeels good. We\u2019ll see where he\u2019s at tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if Ohtani said his knee was feeling 100%, Prior said they didn\u2019t get into specifics.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust said, \u2018How did you feel throwing?\u2019 He said it felt great,\u201d Prior said.<\/p>\n

Ohtani, who was in the lineup Wednesday as the designated hitter, was not made available to comment before the game.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still unclear when Ohtani will pick up pitching duties again. But manager Dave Roberts<\/a> ruled out Ohtani starting on the mound this weekend against the Mets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s day by day with him,\u201d Prior said. \u201cWe\u2019re present today. He threw a bullpen, see where he comes in \u2026 Friday, since we\u2019re off [Thursday]. We\u2019ll make determinations after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This bullpen session was a chance for Ohtani to test his knee, which before the injection seemed to be aggravated by pitching.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big sign,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cBecause the grass, the flat ground, all of that stuff is well and good, the arm is fine. So it\u2019s more of getting down the slope, throwing over your front side. That\u2019s kind of the big test. Usually the bullpens are right around 88 (mph), so we\u2019ll see where he\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohtani has already been out long enough that the Dodgers will have to be mindful of his workload whenever he rejoins the rotation. His last start on the mound was July 3 against the Padres.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still think it hasn\u2019t been so long that the equity that he\u2019s built up with the pitch count is that much compromised,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cBut with that, I can\u2019t foresee him running out there and throwing 100 pitches his first outing.\u201d<\/p>\n

If he\u2019s sidelined for too long, he could have to gradually build up with each start. But it\u2019s hard to pinpoint where that delineation lies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the easy answer is to say every pitcher is different,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Shohei Ohtani wrapped up long toss in the Citizens Bank Park outfield Wednesday afternoon, turned and headed for the two-story bullpen stairs. Ohtani had initially been scheduled to take the mound for the Dodgers Wednesday against the Phillies. But, with the date of his next pitching start up in the air, his bullpen session still…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/003a610\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3019x1585+0+214\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcc%2Fd8%2F98482b1643369d55abb4065e80ce%2Fdodgers-phillies-baseball-86965.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2622,767,2619,2621,2623,2620],"class_list":["post-1327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-bullpen","tag-dodgers","tag-encouraged","tag-ohtani","tag-session","tag-shohei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}