What does Shohei Ohtani have in store for an encore?

Is Shohei Ohtani really superhuman? We're about to find out. The Los Angeles Dodgers star will return to being the game's best two-way player since Babe Ruth after a 2023 ulnar collateral ligament surgery that kept him from pitching in 2024.

No matter, the $700 million man led the Dodgers to a World Series title with his bat, becoming the first player in history to record at least 50 home runs and 50 steals in the same season. The question, "What can't this man do?" has so far gone unanswered.

But Ohtani will be tested like never before in 2025. His return to pitching won't be immediate. L.A. will likely hold him out until May, hoping he will peak in time for the playoffs. The UCL surgery is the second major arm surgery of his career, following Tommy John surgery in 2018 as a rookie.

His ability to bounce back would buoy the Dodgers as they look to employ a six-man rotation that includes the newly signed 23-year-old Roki Sasaki. The unknown is how Ohtani will respond to a second major surgery. As a two-way star, there's not as much opportunity for rehab starts and other similar activities since the Dodgers still need his bat in the lineup.

And speaking of his bat, Ohtani is also rehabbing his left shoulder after tearing his labrum trying to steal a base in Game 2 of the World Series. Will it affect his ability to produce at the plate in 2025? The early returns are that Ohtani looks as good as new.

“I saw some videos recently,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Saturday at DodgerFest, “and you just wouldn’t think that there was any surgery this past winter.”

It might be a long shot that Ohtani duplicates last season's 54-homer, 59-steal effort, but what does regression look like for a player of his caliber? In 2021, Ohtani was named American League MVP after slashing .257/.372/.592 with 46 home runs, 100 RBI and 26 steals. Perhaps he won't hit never-before-seen milestones in 2025, but even a lesser version of Ohtani is still an MVP candidate.

Roberts noted that Ohtani is reaching triple-digit exit velocity in videos he's seen. So far, all is going to plan, but L.A. had a short offseason due to the World Series title, and the team has an abbreviated spring training due to playing in the Japan Series March 18-19.

Ohtani is attempting to do something no player has done before. There's no playbook or history to lean on regarding a two-way player rehabbing injuries that affect both his pitching and hitting. And yet, the consensus in L.A. is that somehow, he'll figure it out.

"I think Shohei's going to be Shohei," Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said at DodgerFest. "I just don't see how he's not."