Shohei Ohtani’s early start to spring pushes Cy Young asparations

LOS ANGELES — In just nine days, teams across MLB will begin to have their pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training, and one familiar superstar has already begun his preparation ahead of the chaos. 

Coming off back-to-back World Series titles with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani begins year three in Dodger blue with a head start, as he was seen Wednesday morning working on his pitching mechanics at the Dodgers Spring Training Facility in Glendale, Arizona. 

It’s widely known that, when it comes to perfecting the little details in terms of a routine, Ohtani is the most precise in the league, and he displayed it once more, going through every second of his pitching motion. 

Even down to his foot pushing off the rubber, every movement has to flow to perfection. 

The world saw the likes of Ohtani pitching for the Dodgers for the first time last year as the season began to wind down, and it was also the first time we got to see the two-way unicorn step on the mound in the postseason en route to the Dodgers' third World Series title in the last five years. 

Ohtani went through a tedious, yet instrumental, comeback in terms of rehab when it came to his pitching. 

Whether it was through a precarious number of live bullpen sessions sprinkled in throughout the majority of the 2025 season, or frequent throwing assignments hours before games, every pitch was a telltale sign of Ohtani’s pitching dominance beginning to shine through. 

Now, after scratching off pitching in the postseason for the first time and essentially full steam ahead to pitch with no restrictions in 2026, Ohtani will look forward to next season as the year he contributes on the pitching side for Los Angeles. 

Ohtani was thought to be working even earlier on his pitching, as he said at DodgersFest last Saturday that there was a possibility that he would pitch for Team Japan in the WBC. 

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts quickly shot down the idea of Ohtani stepping on the mound for Team Japan a little over an hour after Ohtani spoke to the media, and it was revealed on Tuesday that insurance would not be written off on Ohtani as a pitcher anyway. 

With the WBC out of mind, Ohtani’s early ramp up to Spring Training rewrites the narrative once more that, not only does he want to be a factor to the Dodgers starting rotation in 2026, which is headlined by the likes of fellow countrymen Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, along with Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell, but add another piece of hardware to an undeniable resume. 

The Cy Young Award. 

The 31-year-old Japanese superstar is a four-time unanimous MVP winner, five-time All-Star, four-time Silver Slugger, three-time Hank Aaron Award winner, and American League Rookie of the Year winner in 2018, but the coveted Cy Young Award is the only piece missing from his trophy cabinet. 

If everything goes according to plan and Ohtani can stray away from injury to his throwing arm, 2026 will be the first season Ohtani pitches for Los Angeles from the jump and could notch 20-plus starts like years past.