Shohei Ohtani moving to Dodgers' bullpen for playoffs comes with one major caveat

Before Thursday, Shohei Ohtani was continuing to prove that he was worth the wait in his return to the pitcher's mound after a second major elbow surgery. Through his first nine starts (23 1/3 innings) for the Los Angeles Dodgers, he had a 3.47 ERA and has struck out 32 batters while walking just five.

If he and the rest of his fellow starters can stay healthy – admittedly, a big "if" – the Dodgers will have their dream October rotation of Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw.

In the meantime, though, the Dodgers are keeping a close eye on his workload and limiting his starts to five innings or fewer, which raises the question: could we see Ohtani pitch out of the Dodgers' bullpen in the playoffs?

The short answer: maybe. But the long answer is a bit more complicated.

Possible Shohei Ohtani move during Dodgers’ postseason comes with a lot of caveats

Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior seemed bullish on the idea during his interview on the Dan Patrick Show this week, saying he could "absolutely" see a scenario in which Ohtani pitches out of the bullpen during the postseason – but it would have to be a scenario in which he would be recording the final outs of the game.

The reason the Dodgers would be limited as to when and how they deployed Ohtani out of the bullpen has to do with Major League Baseball’s “Ohtani Rule,” which specifies that a starting pitcher can remain in the game as a designated hitter even after being removed from the game as a pitcher. The rule does not apply, however, to a pitcher used in relief; so, if Ohtani starts a game as a DH and enters the game to pitch, removing him from the pitcher's mound would remove him from the game entirely – including the batting order.

In order to avoid losing his bat from the game, then, the Dodgers would only be able to deploy Ohtani out of the bullpen if he were recording the final outs of said game. It's possible that could happen – and we've even seen him do it before.

Ohtani has actually only pitched one time in relief since coming over to MLB in 2018, though it wasn’t in an MLB game. In the championship game of the 2023 World Baseball Classic, he recorded the final three outs for Samurai Japan after starting the game as a designated hitter.

If the Dodgers are going to have Ohtani pitch just one inning in a game, it might as well be as a starter (or, more specifically, as an opener) so that they can keep his bat in the lineup. But the door still remains open for him to make a postseason appearance out of the bullpen, as long as the right situation presents itself.