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Shohei Ohtani threw a bullpen session before Wednesday’s game against the Phillies, and the early reviews were positive. The Dodgers described the session as encouraging, though Ohtani is not expected to pitch in a game anytime soon, per the LA Times staff report.

This is the next concrete step in Ohtani’s recovery from the left knee issue that has kept him off the mound. We’ve been tracking this one closely — earlier reports suggested a bullpen session was in the works to test the knee, and now we know it actually happened and went well. “It looked good” was the message coming out of the clubhouse, which is about as optimistic as you’ll hear from a team that tends to play things close to the vest with injury updates.

Ohtani’s pitching return has been one of the most closely watched storylines of the 2026 season. After his historic 2024 campaign as a full-time hitter and the long road back from UCL reconstruction, he’s been working his way back to two-way duty. The knee setback was a frustrating detour — Ohtani had been adjusting his pitching mechanics to reduce stress on the joint, and this bullpen session was the first real-time test of whether those adjustments are holding up under game-speed effort. The fact that he got through it without any reported setback is the kind of news we needed.

I want to be clear about what this is and what it isn’t. A clean bullpen session is a checkpoint, not a finish line. Ohtani still has to build up pitch count, likely throw additional bullpen sessions or simulated games, and eventually face live hitters before he’s back on a major league mound. The team saying he’s not expected to pitch in a game soon tells you exactly where we are in that progression — early stages. But the arrow is pointing in the right direction.

For the Dodgers, this matters enormously beyond just having Ohtani healthy as a hitter. The rotation has been under real strain. Emmet Sheehan has been roughed up in recent outings and the club is already navigating innings limits on younger arms like Justin Wrobleski. Trade deadline conversations about adding a front-line starter — Tarik Skubal‘s name keeps coming up — are partly a reflection of just how much the Dodgers need Ohtani the pitcher back at some point this season. A healthy, pitching Ohtani changes the entire calculus for this roster in October.

The timeline remains fuzzy, and the Dodgers aren’t going to rush this. They shouldn’t. But a bullpen session that “looked good” is the first piece of genuinely encouraging pitching news we’ve gotten on Ohtani in a while. We’ll be watching for the next step — whether that’s another bullpen, a sim game, or a rehab start assignment. For now, this is a good day.

Source(s): Staff (LA Times) | First reported: July 22, 2026 10:41 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers