From 50/50 to Cy Young? Shohei Ohtani is a man on a mission

PHOENIX -- As Shohei Ohtani progressed through rehab, increased his stamina and began to resemble a traditional starting pitcher down the stretch last year, Los Angeles Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior assumed their work together would be compromised. Hitting always beckoned, time was often limited and the between-innings conversations Prior often engages in with the rest of his staff, he thought, would be unrealistic with a two-way player. But Prior was quickly proven wrong. Ohtani's aspirations transcended his bandwidth.

"Every inning he'd come in," Prior said, "and it was a review."

Unless he was preparing to lead off the next half-inning, Ohtani would march into the dugout, find an empty spot near the bench and convene with his catcher and Prior to dissect what happened and plan what would follow. Ohtani wanted to know how his stuff was playing and how hitters were responding, whether the game plan was working or whether adjustments were needed. Often, those talks took place while Ohtani raced to put on his batting equipment and scurry into the on-deck circle. On several occasions, he'd leave a question in the air and expect an answer upon return.

"Most guys will take a breather," Prior said. "He'll start rattling off and start talking about what's going on because he knows obviously, his time's limited. I didn't have an appreciation that that's how it was going to be. I thought it was going to be more pregame, and then he goes and plays, and maybe there's some more post-evaluation. But he was like every other pitcher -- present in the moment."

Dodgers officials who witnessed Ohtani juggle pitching and hitting simultaneously last year found that it produced two distinct personalities. When he was only hitting, Ohtani seemed relaxed, often jovial. When he was also pitching, his intensity heightened, a certain edge was apparent. And as spring training began, with Ohtani preparing to tackle full-time two-way duties for the first time in three years, many have noticed a clear intent.

"He seems like he's on a mission, pitching-wise," Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. "Whenever we've seen him on a mission, good things happen."

Friedman witnessed it in 2024, the first season of Ohtani's 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers. A second repair of his ulnar collateral ligament had taken pitching off the table, and so Ohtani set out to become a more aggressive baserunner. He more than doubled his previous career high in stolen bases, chartered the 50/50 club and became the first designated hitter to win an MVP. Friedman is now among the many who believe Ohtani will dedicate a similar focus to pitching. What it produces can only be left to the imagination.

"There's no ceiling with him," Dodgers catcher Will Smith said. "He can go out there and win a Cy Young this year. I have no doubt about that."

Ohtani, 31, has claimed four MVP awards in the past five years, all of them unanimously. After six years spent languishing on Los Angeles Angels teams that never made the playoffs, he is now a two-time champion. A Cy Young is the only major award eluding him. And though he expressed at the start of camp that "being healthy the whole year" is his primary focus, it has become obvious to his coaches and teammates that being named the National League's best pitcher -- and leaving no doubt that he is the greatest, most singular talent in Major League Baseball history -- is a goal.

"He wants a Cy Young," Dodgers backup catcher Dalton Rushing said. "He wants a Cy Young, and you can tell with the way he's carrying himself here recently."

OHTANI THREW CONSISTENTLY in the mid-90s during the Dodgers' first official workout of spring training, a notable development for someone who traditionally likes to ease into his throwing program. Four days later, at around 10 a.m. on Feb. 17, Ohtani took his place atop the mound on Field 1 of his team's complex and prepared to face hitters for the first time this year. Rushing crouched behind home plate while every principal Dodgers decision-maker stood nearby, crowding behind a small net. Their interest was piqued.

The session, during which Ohtani reached 98 mph in one simulated inning, did nothing to temper expectations.

Rushing described his stuff as "electric."

Said Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, who stood nearby: "I think this year we're going to expect a different Shohei on the mound."

Between two elbow surgeries, Ohtani made 74 starts for the Angels from 2021 to 2023, during which he posted a 2.84 ERA, struck out 542 batters and issued 143 walks in 428⅓ innings. Among the 57 pitchers who compiled at least 400 innings in that stretch, only two (Max Fried and Max Scherzer) had a lower ERA. Only one (Blake Snell) had a higher strikeout rate. And yet, the prevailing question around Ohtani is whether more upside remains.

Nobody knows how much longer Ohtani will be able to pitch, but his circumstances heading into 2026 -- having returned to the rotation late last year, paving the way for a normal offseason, and now working more closely with an organization known for making pitchers better, despite its reputation for injuries -- make this the ideal time to maximize his potential.

His teammates could help him.

Twenty-three years ago, Prior formed a devastating rotation duo alongside fellow Chicago Cubs teammate Kerry Wood. Prior became a better pitcher because of it. Later, as Prior evolved into a coach, he saw how Clayton Kershaw's presence elevated the Hyun-Jin Ryu, Walker Buehler and Julio Urias. Prior believes something similar will play out between Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who finished third in NL Cy Young voting last year. Both have as good a chance as anyone to become the first Japanese pitcher to capture MLB's top pitching award.

Prior expects them to push each other. But they'll also be pushed by Snell, a two-time Cy Young winner, and Tyler Glasnow, who possesses some of the sport's best raw stuff, plus a host of young, promising starters who round out arguably the game's best rotation.

"It's the competitive standard you start creating," Prior said. "And then, it becomes like a brotherhood or like a loyalty thing, however you'd like to describe it, like you want to hold up the standard that is being set by whether it's one pitcher or maybe three or four of them. And when you get to that part of the rotation culture, that's when teams get extremely competitive, and they get extremely lethal because nobody wants to be the weak link."

OHTANI'S RETURN TO pitching began with him essentially moving his rehab into games. He started by throwing one inning at a time in the middle of June and didn't progress to the five-inning mark until the end of August. All told, he put up a 3.34 ERA with 90 strikeouts and 16 walks in 67⅓ innings, playoffs included.

Prior noticed instances when Ohtani became too predictable, such as when he leaned heavily on his fastball-sweeper mix in an Aug. 13 start against the Angels and paid the price. But Prior also noticed times when Ohtani's command of six pitches opened doors unavailable to others. Such as when he threw 23 curveballs on an Aug. 27 night against the Cincinnati Reds because the velocity of his fastball was not there. Or in the middle of Game 4 of the NL Championship Series, when, in the midst of a three-homer game, he suddenly deployed his splitter and gave the Milwaukee Brewers' hitters yet another offering to account for.

"I do think last year it was important for him to just get back, get healthy and get pitching," Prior said. "Now, it's about maybe refining the usages, the arsenal, maybe how he attacks hitters, and knowing what his stuff is now."

Before spring training, Ohtani had already completed two bullpen sessions at close to full intensity. By the time he left Dodgers camp Feb. 23 to join his Japanese teammates for a World Baseball Classic in which he will only hit, he had completed two full innings and seemed on track to join the rotation by Opening Day.

Upon rejoining his teammates -- perhaps as late as March 19 if Japan advances to the championship game -- the hope is that Ohtani will have faced hitters at least two additional times. But logistics could be a problem. The difficulty of international travel, the reality of a highly competitive tournament and the limitations of a practice schedule that often has the Japan national team training on high school fields could all get in the way.

As is their custom, the Dodgers won't rush Ohtani as a pitcher, either going into the season or during it. The presence of young, optionable starters such as Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan, Gavin Stone, Kyle Hurt, Roki Sasaki, Landon Knack and Justin Wrobleski allows them to give Ohtani as many days off in between starts as needed. Ohtani could be healthy all year and easily not exceed 25 starts -- a total that 82 pitchers surpassed in 2025. Opportunity alone could sap his chances at the Cy Young Award. And yet, despite an array of obstacles in front of him, the expectations are once again astronomical.

He tends to meet them.

"He keeps getting put in these spots where you expect something incredible to happen, and he rarely disappoints," Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. "To me, it's going to be the same thing this year -- he's not going to disappoint."