Shohei Ohtani willing to make major change to help Dodgers

Ohtani can remain in a game as the designated hitter even if he starts as a pitcher. However, the team would not be able to start him as a DH and then put him on the mound in a relief role without losing the DH for the remainder of the game. By playing the outfield, the Dodgers would avoid this problem, and be able to shift Ohtani between the mound and the outfield late in games if they wanted to.

The flipside, of course, is that Ohtani would have to take the added risk of playing defense. The Japanese star played seven games as an outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels in 2021, but has otherwise been exclusively used as a pitcher or DH during his MLB career.

It is pretty obvious why the Dodgers would be interested in doing this. Their bullpen has been a mess recently, and it managed to blow a brilliant start by Ohtani on Tuesday — during a game when the superstar made absurd MLB history. The Dodgers have enough rotation arms that they could probably get away with using Ohtani as a reliever in short bursts.

Ohtani has a 3.29 ERA this season with 54 strikeouts in 41 innings. He could be dominant in limited duty as a reliever if the Dodgers are willing to take the risk of putting him in the outfield.