Shohei Ohtani won't need surgery and expects to return to two-way play, timeline unclear

What happened

Shohei Ohtani will not need surgery and expects to return to two-way play, MLB.com's Sonja Chen reported. The exact shape of that return — when it happens, what it looks like on a game-by-game basis — remains up in the air.

That framing matters. "Expects to return" is not a timetable, and "two-way form" is not a schedule. The Dodgers and their fans have reason for optimism, but the operational details are still being worked out, and Sonja Chen's reporting is careful to preserve that uncertainty rather than paper over it.

Why it matters

Ohtani missed the final three months of the season on the mound due to injury, per earlier reporting. He has said he "definitely" plans to pitch in 2027. The no-surgery news removes one significant branch from the decision tree — the branch that would have introduced a hard recovery clock and a more definitive absence from pitching. What remains is a softer, more open-ended path, which is both more encouraging and, frankly, harder to plan around.

For the Dodgers, the distinction between "Ohtani pitching in 2027" and "Ohtani pitching in 2027 in a defined role from Opening Day" is the difference between a rotation anchor and a mid-season variable. Both are good problems to have. They are not the same problem.

The two-way designation itself carries specific roster mechanics under general league rules. Two-way players are subject to the 15-day injured list rather than the 10-day IL, and their eligibility to pitch and hit in the same game is governed by service thresholds the league has established. None of that changes the news here, but it does mean the Dodgers' front office is managing a more complex roster instrument than a standard position player or pitcher — and the uncertainty around Ohtani's role makes that instrument harder to calibrate heading into the offseason.

Where the club stands

The Dodgers finished the regular season at 100-62 (.617), sitting first in the NL West and riding a three-game winning streak. That record is the backdrop against which every Ohtani conversation takes place: this is a team that won 100 games with Ohtani unavailable as a pitcher for the final three months. The question the front office is now navigating is what 2027 looks like if he returns to the mound in some capacity — and what it looks like if the timeline slips.

At 100-62 (.617) and first in the NL West, the Dodgers are not a franchise in distress. They are a franchise in the middle of a genuinely complicated offseason, one that involves Ohtani's health and role, the future of Tarik Skubal — acquired from the Tigers ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline in exchange for three prospects, per prior reporting — and the roster churn that follows any postseason run.

Miguel Rojas announced his retirement following the end of the Dodgers' postseason run, per reporting earlier this week. Catcher Ben Rortvedt elected minor league free agency after being outrighted off the 40-man roster in September. The roster is, in the polite language of the offseason, in flux. The Ohtani news lands in the middle of all of that — not as a resolution, but as a data point that shapes what the front office can reasonably plan for.

What we don't know yet

The timeline for Ohtani's return to two-way play is not established. The specific role he will fill — how many starts, what workload, whether he pitches from the beginning of the season or works back into it — is described by Sonja Chen as "up in the air." MLB.com's reporting does not attach a date, a target, or a medical milestone to the return. What it establishes is that surgery is not part of the picture and that Ohtani himself anticipates returning to two-way form. Everything downstream of that is still being determined.

It is worth sitting with that for a moment, because the temptation in baseball coverage is to treat "no surgery needed" as a solved problem. It is not. It is a favorable condition. The Dodgers still need to understand what Ohtani's workload looks like, how his body responds to a full spring training, and whether the two-way designation makes operational sense from the first week of the season or requires a more gradual reintroduction. None of that is answered yet.

What to watch

### Will Ohtani be a two-way player from Opening Day 2027?

That is the question Sonja Chen's reporting leaves open. Ohtani has said he "definitely" plans to pitch in 2027, and the no-surgery news removes a significant obstacle. But the Dodgers have not announced a role, a workload, or a timeline, and MLB.com is explicit that how the two-way return looks is still unresolved. The answer to this question will shape how the Dodgers approach the rest of their offseason — including what they do with Skubal, whose own future with the club has been described as the biggest question of their offseason per prior reporting.

The Skubal situation is worth watching in parallel. A rotation that includes a healthy, two-way Ohtani looks different from one that does not, and the Dodgers' decisions about pitching depth this winter will almost certainly be informed by how the Ohtani picture clarifies — or doesn't — over the coming weeks and months.

The offseason is young. The Dodgers are 100-62. And the most consequential roster question they face has no answer yet, which is either maddening or clarifying depending on your relationship with uncertainty.