As the Los Angeles Dodgers prepare to enter spring training before one of their most highly anticipated seasons in memory, star acquisition Shohei Ohtani says he expects to be ready by Opening Day, according to Mike DiGiovanna of The Los Angeles Times:

“Shohei Ohtani said he is “very confident” he will be ready for opening day with #Dodgers in South Korea.”

Ohtani will likely be the Dodgers' designated hitter as he works to recover from the elbow surgery that ended his 2023 season. Ohtani addressed a question regarding his ramp up toward pitching again, per Nick Hamilton of SiriusXM:

Said the Dodgers' Ohtani via his interpreter, “I'm going to start my throwing program once we get to Arizona. Kind of go from there, we haven't scheduled anything too far ahead, like live BP's or anything. So we're going to go by ear throughout camp. The main focus is going to be on hitting, obviously, throughout the year, so we're going to try to ease into the pitching part of it throughout the year.”

Moreover, Dodgers executive Brandon Games said Ohtani will be somewhat limited to start spring training, per Fabian Ardaya. There is no reason to worry though, as he still expected to be ready for Opening Day.

Ohtani was having another tremendous season before his injury. The 29-year-old boasted an OPS of 1.066, hit 44 home runs, batted a .304 average, and accumulated 95 RBI. On the pitching side, Ohtani was 10-5, threw 167 strikeouts, and earned a 3.14 ERA to go with 1.06 WHIP.

He won his second AL MVP award before signing with the Dodgers this offseason.