Shohei Ohtani says he 'definitely' plans to pitch in 2027

What happened

Shohei Ohtani told MLB.com's Brian Murphy that he "definitely" plans to pitch in the 2027 season. The declaration arrives after injuries kept the two-way star off the mound for the final 3 months of the 2024 campaign — a stretch that left the pitching half of his game on an extended hold while the rest of baseball waited.

Per Murphy's report for MLB.com, Ohtani is looking forward rather than backward, framing 2027 as the target for his return to the mound. What the specific injury was, what the recovery timeline looks like, and what "pitching in 2027" means in terms of workload or role — none of that has been detailed in the report.

Why it matters

Ohtani's value as a two-way player is not a minor footnote. When he pitches, he is one of the most disruptive forces in the sport. When he does not, he remains a generational hitter — but the Dodgers and the broader baseball world have been watching the pitching side of his ledger with considerable patience since the 2024 injury.

The 2026 season added another layer of complexity. A day before Murphy's report, a Posterior Wire item noted that Ohtani described 2026 as an injury-plagued year and signaled he dealt with significant health issues throughout the season. That context makes his forward-looking statement about 2027 feel less like a casual offseason comment and more like a deliberate message: the mound is still part of the plan.

The NLCS exit that preceded this week's news also colored the backdrop. Reports surfaced ahead of NLCS Game 3 that Ohtani might be benched, and questions about his health surfaced publicly — though Ohtani himself dismissed those health concerns and started at DH. Manager Dave Roberts expressed full confidence in him. Ohtani was moved down in the batting order for Game 3, then returned to the leadoff spot for Game 4. The postseason, in other words, was not a clean narrative for him, and the injury-plagued framing he offered afterward suggests the 2026 season carried more physical difficulty than was visible from the outside.

Against all of that, a "definitely" about pitching in 2027 carries real weight. It is not a hedge. It is not a "we'll see how the offseason goes." It is the clearest public signal yet that Ohtani intends to be a two-way player again — and soon.

The numbers

The Dodgers finished the regular season at 100-62 (.617), first in the NL West and riding a three-game winning streak into the postseason. That record reflects a roster built around Ohtani's bat even in seasons when his arm is unavailable, which is its own kind of testament to what he provides as a hitter alone. A team that wins 100 games without its best player throwing a single pitch is a team that has learned to plan around uncertainty — and is now, apparently, planning around its end.

Where the club stands

Los Angeles enters the offseason from a position of strength on paper — 100-62, NL West champions, a .617 winning percentage — but the NLCS exit means the roster will face real questions about construction and health heading into 2027.

The Dodgers' pitching picture is already in motion. A day after Murphy's report, a Posterior Wire item noted that Tarik Skubal's future with the club is the biggest question of their offseason, following his acquisition from the Tigers ahead of the August 3 trade deadline in exchange for three prospects. How Skubal fits into a rotation that could eventually include a healthy, pitching Ohtani is a question the front office will be working through all winter. Two-way players and trade-deadline starters occupy different planning horizons, and the Dodgers are now managing both simultaneously.

Miguel Rojas, meanwhile, officially retired after 13 MLB seasons and is set to transition into a player development role with the Dodgers, per a Posterior Wire item from earlier this week. The roster is already reshaping itself around what comes next, and the front office has a full offseason of decisions ahead.

What we don't know yet

### So is Ohtani actually pitching in 2027?

Ohtani's statement to Brian Murphy at MLB.com is a declaration of intent, not a medical clearance. The nature of the injury that kept him off the mound for the final 3 months of 2024 has not been detailed in the report. The specifics of his 2026 health issues — which he described as significant — have not been disclosed. There is no timetable attached to his 2027 pitching plans, no indication of whether he would be a starter, a limited-innings option, or something else entirely.

The gap between "definitely plans to pitch" and "takes the mound in a regular-season game" is one that baseball has seen bridged and not bridged in equal measure. Under general league rules, pitchers and two-way players are subject to the 15-day injured list rather than the 10-day version available to position players — a structural acknowledgment that the pitching side of the game carries its own recovery calculus. None of that is attached to Ohtani specifically in this report; it is simply the mechanical backdrop against which any pitching return gets planned.

Ohtani's confidence is meaningful. It is not, by itself, a schedule.

What to watch

The offseason will answer some of these questions faster than others. Watch for any formal updates from the Dodgers on Ohtani's health status — the club has not, per this report, issued any announcement about his physical condition or a return timeline. Watch also for how Los Angeles approaches its rotation construction this winter, particularly given the open question around Skubal's future with the team. Those two storylines are not independent of each other.

And watch Ohtani himself. He has been deliberate and precise in how he has communicated about his pitching future throughout this stretch. When he tells MLB.com's Brian Murphy "definitely," that is a word he chose. The desk will be paying attention to every word that follows it.