Shohei Ohtani has taken another step forward in his recovery from right arm and left knee injuries.
On Saturday afternoon, the two-way star did base-running drills on the field during Dodgers batting practice –– and began taking simulated at-bats against the team’s Trajekt Arc pitching machine behind the scenes in the clubhouse batting cages.
The former was the more visible development, marking the first time Ohtani had been seen on the field performing physical activities since he went on the injured list at the end of last week’s homestand.
His work in the hitting cages, however, was a more telling sign of how quickly he might be able to return to action, representing a significant step in what has thus far been a setback-free ramp-up process.
At the start of the week, Ohtani resumed hitting activities with incremental steps. First, he hit off a tee. Then, he took soft tosses from coaches. In recent days, he had begun swinging off a pitching machine too.
But the Trajekt machine is different; offering players augmented reality at-bats in which a video screen displays a specific pitcher’s wind-up before firing a ball out of a slot from their hand.
In recent years, the technology has become ubiquitous around MLB clubhouses.
And in lieu of a minor-league rehab stint –– impossible now with the minor-league season ending –– it will be Ohtani’s best way to hone a game-ready swing again.
“You hope it bridges the gap a little bit,” hitting coach Aaron Bates said. “So between machine, live pitching, Trajekt, somewhere in-between that, that’s the best you can do.”
Bates has been part of the group overseeing Ohtani’s recent cage work. He said the slugger has looked “great” and shown no signs of his injuries while returning to full-intensity reps.
“In the cage, in a controlled setting, he’s been really good. It’s 100% intensity,” Bates said. “Once he gets out to the field, if he does a live BP or something like that, and the intensity ramps up, it’ll be a good test to see what happens. But in the cage, in the controlled setting, he’s been really good.”
Before Ohtani went on the injured list, it was evident to the Dodgers’ hitting staff that the two-way star “looked extremely compromised,” as Bates acknowledged.
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One key sign: Ohtani was following through on more of his swings with a one-handed finish, something Bates noted is “always kind of a tell for Shohei, whether he’s going through something or not, just because he is disconnected a bit from his back side.”
Lately, however, Ohtani’s two-handed finish has returned in his swing –– as has the Dodgers’ optimism that he will be able to provide production in their lineup, despite the 6-for-52 slump he was mired in previously.
“I think everything’s been good so far,” Bates said.
When Ohtani will be activated remains unclear, with his 15-day stint not up until next Wednesday. But both manager Dave Roberts and president of baseball operations have said they expect him to be back before the end of the regular season.
Bates echoed that sentiment Saturday, saying Ohtani appears to be “on schedule” while defering any more specific timeline to the training staff.
Ohtani has not asked to get a specific number of simulated at-bats before being activated, Bates added.
“He just kind of goes how he feels,” he said. “And the rehab guys will have kind of the exact quantity kind of laid out for them in that sense.”
Time will still tell, of course, whether or not Ohtani will actually look like himself when he returns, or if he the months he spent playing through his injuries have left him too diminished to make his typical impact with the bat.
As Bates noted, it’s possible Ohtani could get a live batting practice session against a pitcher before returning (although the organization is short on arms at the moment capable of doing that, Roberts said Saturday). But beyond that, his Trajekt at-bats will likely account for the bulk of his hitting preparation before returning to game action.
“You kind of fire them out there and see what happens,” Bates said. “Just like spring training, it kind of takes guys a little bit of time to get their footing. But it depends on the person. Every guy is a little bit different with how much time they need. Some guys don’t need a lot.”
Ohtani, Bates said, is in that latter category.
And so far, at least, his hitting progression is going about as well as they could have hoped.
