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The Dodgers are considering having Shohei Ohtani start on the mound against the Detroit Tigers this Sunday, per staff reporting at DodgerBlue.com. Nothing is finalized yet, but the team plans to be “a little bit more aggressive” with his rehab buildup. Ohtani faced live hitters at Dodger Stadium last Saturday in what was described as a significant step toward his return to pitching — the final phase now is getting him into actual game action.

This has been a long time coming. Ohtani hasn’t pitched in a regular-season game since his time with the Angels in 2023, before undergoing his second UCL surgery. The Dodgers signed him that offseason knowing the pitching side of his game would be shelved for the entirety of 2024 and most of 2025. He’s been their designated hitter since arriving, and his bat has more than justified the investment — his 2024 MVP season and his continued production in 2026 have been elite. But the pitching is the part that makes him a generational player. The stuff he flashed in Japan and Anaheim — the triple-digit fastball, the devastating sweeper, the splitter that falls off the table — that’s what makes him unlike anyone who’s ever played the game. Getting that weapon back, even in limited capacity down the stretch, changes the calculus for this team entirely.

The fact that the Dodgers are accelerating the timeline rather than playing it safe tells you something about where they think he is physically. Live batting practice is one thing; facing major league hitters with adrenaline pumping is another. A Sunday start against Detroit would be a controlled environment — the Tigers aren’t exactly a buzzsaw at the plate — and it would give the Dodgers a chance to evaluate his readiness with a few weeks still left before the postseason push gets truly serious.

I want to be clear: this is still in the “possibility” category. The team hasn’t committed to it, and these things can shift day to day depending on how Ohtani feels in his next bullpen or live session. But the signal here is encouraging. The Dodgers aren’t tiptoeing anymore. They’re moving toward getting him on a mound in a real game, and that’s a meaningful shift in tone from even a week ago.

If this comes together, the implications are obvious. A rotation that already features Tarik Skubal, Tyler Glasnow (just activated off the IL), Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, and Roki Sasaki adding Ohtani — even as a shortened-innings option — would be absurd depth heading into October. We’ve spent all year building toward this moment. The fact that the front office and coaching staff are pushing the pace rather than pumping the brakes suggests they like what they’ve seen. Sunday against Detroit could be one of the most anticipated regular-season starts in recent Dodger history, and it might not even count for much in the standings. It counts for everything in terms of what this team could look like in the postseason.

Source(s): Staff (DodgerBlue.com) | First reported: August 26, 2026 7:25 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers