Dodgers Dugout: Shohei Ohtani pitching debut delayed; Tommy John will answer your questions

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. Before we get to the news, another former Dodger will be joining our “Ask....” reader Q&A club.

Tommy John will answer your questions

A couple of times a year we do a feature where readers of this newsletter send in questions to Dodgers of the past. We’ve done “Ask Orel Hershiser”, “Ask Jerry Reuss”, “Ask Tom Niedenfuer”, “Ask Peter O’Malley”, “Ask Mickey Hatcher”, “Ask Maury Wills” and “Ask Mike Scioscia” among others.

Tommy John, who had revolutionary arm surgery on Sept. 25, 1974, already was nine seasons into his career when he was traded by the Chicago White Sox to the Dodgers on Dec. 2, 1971 for Dick Allen. He went 11-5 with a 2.89 ERA in 1972 and 16-7 with a 3.10 ERA in 1973 and was one of the best pitchers in the NL each season. He was having another great year in 1974 (13-3, 2.59 ERA) when, on July 17, he threw a pitch to Hal Bredeen of the Montreal Expos.

“It was the strangest sensation I had ever known,” John wrote in his autobiography. “Right at the point where I put force on the pitch, the point where my arm is back and bent, something happened. It felt as if I had left my arm someplace else. It was as if my body continued to go forward and my left arm had just flown out to right field, independent of the rest of me.”

After a couple of months of rest and rehabilitation, John was no better, so he agreed to be operated on on Sept. 25, 1974 by Dr. Frank Jobe, who discovered that John had torn the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow. Jobe, also in John’s autobigraphy, said: “When I went to repair the ligament, because of the long years of wear, there was nothing left to repair. I had to look elsewhere for a substitute.” Jobe replaced John’s torn elbow ligament with a new ligament from John’s right wrist. Afterward he said the odds were 100-1 against John returning to the mound.

But after months of hard work, John returned to the mound on April 16, 1976.

To reduce John’s career to just a recounting of his surgery does him a disservice. He went 10-10 with a 3.09 ERA in 1976, 20-7 with a 2.78 ERA in 1977 (finishing second in Cy Young voting) and 17-10 with a 3.30 ERA in 1978 (finishing eighth in Cy Young voting). He went 3-1 in the postseason with the Dodgers. He signed with the New York Yankees after the 1978 season and won 20 games in each of his first two seasons, finishing in the top five in Cy Young voting both years. The Yankees traded him to the Angels on Aug. 31, 1982. He spent 3½ seasons with the Angels, half a season with Oakland and finished his career with four more seasons with the Yankees, throwing his last pitch when he was 46 years old and 15 years after his surgery.

He finished his career with a 288-231 record and a 3.34 ERA, having thrown 4,710-1/3 innings over 26 years. Amazing. Why isn’t he in the Hall of Fame? He should be.

John has agreed to answer selected questions from Dodgers Dugout readers. So, start thinking and send them to me at [email protected]. The best and most-frequently asked questions will be chosen for him to answer in a future newsletter. You have until 11 p.m. Sunday to send a question. Please put “Ask Tommy John” in the subject line of your email. And please include your first and last name and your city of residence. Thanks.

Shohei Ohtani’s pitching return delayed

As our Jack Harris reports, Shohei Ohtani, once thought to be on track to pitch in late April or early May, hasn’t pitched a bullpen session since Feb. 25. Which is also the day he began playing as the DH in spring training games.

“We just felt that to intensify the bullpens, alongside of the intensity of the games, wasn’t smart,” manager Dave Roberts said. “So we just wanted to kind of slow-play it.”

And will Ohtani be ready to pitch in May?

“I just feel, and we all feel, [we’re] just trying to make it a broad time to return,” Roberts said. “We just don’t know. So I think that when he’s ready … we’ll know. But I don’t want to put any kind of expectation on you guys, or Shohei.... It actually kind of came about through conversation with Shohei, our training staff, the doctors. So all of it kind of was all synced up.... The plan is to ramp him back up. But I don’t know when that will be.”

Well, that sounds very... ambiguous. And with the Dodgers’ recent history of not always being 100% forthcoming on injuries, you have to wonder if something else is going on. Probably not, but you still have to keep that in the back of your mind.

Whatever is happening doesn’t appear to be hurting his hitting, as Ohtani is batting .357/.400/.643 this spring.

Dave Roberts gets his extension

Dave Roberts is getting a four-year, $32.4-million deal to manage the Dodgers through the 2028 season. That makes him the highest-paid manager in the game. Roberts has been quite polarizing to the Dodgers fan base over the years, and he’s certainly been criticized in this newsletter more than once. But the fact remains that he has managed the Dodgers to two World Series titles and four NL pennants and deserves every penny of the new deal.

Some people will say “anyone could manage the Dodgers to a World Series title considering all their talent.” That is ridiculous. We can’t judge Roberts on what mysterious “others” might have done. We can judge him only on what he has done. And he’s been very successful.

A look at the managers with the best winning percentage, minimum 1,000 games, since 1901:

Dave Roberts, 851-507, .627, 2 World Series titles
Joe McCarthy, 2,125-1,333, .615, 7
Billy Southworth, 1,044-704, .597, 2
Frank Chance, 946-648, .593, 2
John McGraw, 2,763-1,948, .586, 3
Aaron Boone, 603-429, .585, 0
Al Lopez, 1,410-1,004, .584, 0
Earl Weaver, 1,480-1,060, .573, 1

All of the above are in the Hall of Fame except Roberts and Boone of course. Roberts is one of 26 managers to win at least two World Series titles.

Where he ranks among Dodgers managers:

Wins
Walter Alston, 2,040
Tommy Lasorda, 1,599
Wilbert Robinson, 1,375
Dave Roberts, 851
Leo Durocher, 738

Winning percentage (min. 500 games)
Dave Roberts, 851-507, .627
Burt Shotton, 326-215, .603
Leo Durocher, 738-565, .566
Walter Alston, 2,040-1,613, .558
Don Mattingly, 446-363, .551
Jim Tracy, 427-383, .527
Tommy Lasorda, 1,5999-1,439, .526

World Series titles
Walter Alston, 4
Tommy Lasorda, 2
Dave Roberts, 2

The pitching rotation

Dave Roberts announced Monday that Dustin May would be the fifth starter, meaning the rotation at the beginning of the season will be:

Blake Snell
Tyler Glasnow
Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Roki Sasaki
Dustin May

Tony Gonsolin has been dealing with a back injury, which made giving May the nod even easier.

Other roster moves

On Tuesday the Dodgers optioned pitcher Bobby Miller and infielder Hyeseong Kim to the minors and reassigned pitcher Giovanny Gallegos, catcher Dalton Rushing, infielders David Bote and Michael Chavis and outfielder Eddie Rosario to minor league camp.

Last week the Dodgers said that Michael Grove will not be able to pitch this season because he is having shoulder surgery. He was hoping to make the bullpen. Also, pitcher Edgardo Henriquez has an injured left foot and won’t be ready until May. There have been no changes to the injury report for other players such as Clayton Kershaw.

The season starts ... next week

Don’t forget, the regular season for the Dodgers begins Tuesday in Japan, when they play the Chicago Cubs at 3 a.m. PT. Tuesday’s game will air on Fox, Wednesday’s game (also at 3 a.m.) airs on FS1.

The Dodgers and Cubs will be able to take an extended 31-player roster to Tokyo for the two games, so we won’t get a lot of insight as to who the 13th position player will be. All we know for sure is that Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start Tuesday and Roki Sasaki on Wednesday. We will discuss the two games in next week’s newsletter.

After the two games, the Dodgers return home for three games with the Angels (one at Dodger Stadium, two at Angel Stadium). Those games do not count in the standings and are spring training games. Then the Dodgers play their home opener March 27 against Detroit.

Also starting next week, this newsletter will return to a more regular schedule now that there are games to talk about. This has been about the most uneventful spring training for the Dodgers in recent history (of course, now I’ve jinxed it). It will be nice to have some actual games and roster decisions to talk about.

In case you missed it

Yoshinobu Yamamoto stays in line to pitch opening day for the Dodgers in Tokyo

Plaschke: Dave Roberts is Dodgers’ real MVP? New contract removes all doubt

Dave Roberts agrees to four-year contract extension with Dodgers

Dodgers prospect Dalton Rushing sowing seeds of trust as he awaits his MLB debut

Dodgers’ Michael Grove out for season after undergoing shoulder surgery

Pick to ‘click’: Dodgers hopeful Michael Conforto can be this year’s version of Teoscar Hernández

Dodgers roster firming up, but Dustin May’s role still unclear: ‘Just need to log innings’

And finally

One last time, before the new season begins: Freddie Freeman hits a grand slam to win Game 1 of the World Series. Watch and listen here.