After winning a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants, the Los Angeles Dodgers dropped a major news about the return of Shohei Ohtani to the mound.

The reigning National League Most Valuable Player is expected to make his first MLB pitching appearance in the 2025 season this Monday, when Los Angeles kicks off a four-game series against the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium, according to the team.

“Shohei Ohtani will be the starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers tomorrow night against the San Diego Padres,” the reigning World Series champions shared in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday night.

Ohtani has not pitched in an MLB game since August of 2023, as he was held back from the hill by a right ulnar collateral ligament that required surgery. While he was able to see action for 159 games with the Dodgers in the 2024 MLB season as a hitter, Los Angeles had a careful approach on the Japanese supestar when it comes to pitching. But that's seemingly not the case anymore, as the Dodgers and Ohtani now feel that he's ready to start pitching again in the big leagues.

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The news also came on the heels of an intriguing take from Dodgers manager about Ohtani's pitching status amid the series against the Giants.

“He's getting very eager, getting very excited,” Dave Roberts about Ohtani before the series finale versus LA's division rivals (h/t Sonja Chen of MLB.com). “I think that there's a point where, in hearing from Shohei, that the effort that it takes to throw lives and things like that, [rather] than to play a game, then let's use those bullets in a game.”

The Padres game will also be Ohtani's pitching debut for the Dodgers, who have mostly seen him do baseball magic with his bat since they signed him to a gargantuan 10-year contract worth $700 million in 2023.

In his first season with the Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani hit .310/.390/.646 with 54 home runs and 130 RBIs. As for his pitching, he went 38-19 with a 3.01 ERA and 3.31 FIP with a 142 ERA+ through a total of 86 starts with the Los Angeles Angels from 2019 to 2023.