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Shohei Ohtani could make his long-awaited pitching return on Sunday when the Dodgers host the Detroit Tigers, per DodgerBlue. The target date would come after Tyler Glasnow returns to the rotation on Tuesday against the Atlanta Braves, giving the Dodgers a chance to get both arms back in the span of a single week.

Ohtani has been building toward this moment methodically. He completed a live batting practice session earlier this week that drew universally positive reviews from the coaching staff, and manager Dave Roberts has spoken openly about a management plan designed to ease Ohtani back into rotation work without overtaxing him. A Sunday start would represent the final step in a rehab progression that has gone about as smoothly as anyone could have hoped. Ohtani’s ability to impact the game on the mound remains one of the most fascinating elements of modern baseball, and the Dodgers have been understandably cautious about rushing that timeline. But the signs all point in the right direction now.

Glasnow’s Tuesday return sets the table for this. He’s been working his way back through a rehab assignment at Triple-A, and his reinsertion into the rotation gives Roberts and the pitching staff the flexibility to slot Ohtani in behind him on Sunday. Getting both of these arms back within days of each other is exactly the kind of late-August boost that separates contenders from pretenders.

I want to be clear: this is still a “could,” not a “will.” Ohtani’s Sunday start is contingent on everything continuing to progress without setbacks between now and then. But the fact that we’re talking about a specific date and a specific opponent tells you how close this is. The Dodgers aren’t being vague anymore. They’re making plans.

For a team already riding a six-game winning streak, the timing could not be better. The rotation has held together with Blake Snell, Tarik Skubal, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto carrying the load, but adding Glasnow and Ohtani back-to-back transforms this from a good pitching staff into something genuinely terrifying. We’ve been waiting for this version of the Dodgers rotation all season — the one where every night feels like a mismatch for the opposing lineup.

If Ohtani does take the mound Sunday, it will be his first game action as a pitcher since earlier in the season. The Dodgers have been deliberate about protecting him, and that caution has been the right call. But the stretch run is here. September is a week away. And if everything holds, we could be watching Ohtani pitch in Dodger blue this weekend. That’s a sentence worth getting excited about.

Source(s): Staff (DodgerBlue) | First reported: August 24, 2026 2:29 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers