Each MLB team’s most important offseason decision
By Nick Villano
Los Angeles Dodgers - How do they use Shohei Ohtani in 2025?
Coming off a championship win, the Dodgers have a lot of decisions to make, and they’re all relatively important. They have a ton of free agents, including Teoscar Hernandez, Walker Buehler, Kike Hernandez, Joe Kelly, and Clayton Kershaw. Despite winning it all, this is a Los Angeles Dodgers team that has no intentions to slow down. They want to be in on Juan Soto. They want to be in on Roki Sasaki. We assume they will try to sign some of their own free agents, and the money is going to flow.
None of that is the most important offseason move. The Los Angeles Dodgers most important move for 2025 is deciding how they want to use Shohei Ohtani. The expected National League MVP spent this entire season as a designated hitter, and he is still going to run away with the MVP. He didn’t pick up a baseball all season. He didn’t play a ground ball. What he did do was become the first player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season.
Ohtani didn’t pitch in 2024 because of an elbow injury, but many expected him to pitch in 2025. Some even said he will push to pitch on Opening Day, which will take place in his home country of Japan. However, a serious shoulder injury led to surgery this offseason, and it’s unlikely he’ll be ready to pitch in that series.
With how important Ohtani is as a hitter, is it even worth it to have him pitch and risk further injury? He is a top-10 pitcher in the league when healthy, but he might be the best hitter. Losing that because of a pitching-related injury might not be worth the reward of his pitching stats. The Dodgers have to decide how Ohtani will be used in 2025 because it will impact how they approach the offseason.