It's no secret that the bullpen is the Achilles heel for the 2025 Los Angeles Dodgers. MLB fans assumed that the Dodgers would have the best bullpen in the sport after they signed both Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates over the offseason, but whether it's due to injury or underperformance (or both), the only reliable reliever the Dodgers have right now is Roki Sasaki, and he wasn't even in the Major Leagues down the stretch of the regular season.
Because of their dire need for bullpen help, the news that Shohei Ohtani is going to prepare to be a reliever for the rest of the World Series after his Game 4 start sounds like the best-case scenario for the Dodgers. We've seen Ohtani pitch in relief before, getting a save for Team Japan against the U.S. in the WBC final back in 2023, so why couldn't Ohtani come up big in the World Series out of the 'pen?
Ohtani said he would prepare to be available to pitch in relief in the remaining games of the series.
— Dylan Hernández (@dylanohernandez) October 29, 2025
On paper, if Ohtani is truly up for it, using him in relief makes too much sense. But a closer look would show that he's not the easy bullpen fix that Dodgers fans are eager for him to be.
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MLB rules make it very difficult to use Shohei Ohtani out of the bullpen
To get the most out of Ohtani's two-way prowess, MLB rightly instituted the "Shohei Ohtani rule". This allows for a player who is the starting pitcher and DH for any given game to remain in the game as the DH even after getting removed as a starting pitcher. It makes it easier for Ohtani to hit and pitch simultaneously. As great a rule as this is, however, it does extend to relievers.
This means that if Ohtani were to start at DH and enter the game in relief, the Dodgers would then lose their DH spot. Ohtani would be able to hit as long as he's in the game, but once he's removed on the mound, the new pitcher would take his spot in the lineup.
This rule makes it incredibly difficult to use Ohtani out of the bullpen. Sure, the Dodgers could certainly use him in that role, but is Ohtani's pitching really more valuable than his hitting? I mean, there's nobody better offensively than Ohtani right now. Will Dave Roberts be willing to lose his bat for the remainder of a World Series game?
There's only one situation where using Shohei Ohtani as a reliever makes any sense
There's really only one situation where using Ohtani out of the bullpen makes any sort of sense. The Dodgers would have to be winning in the ninth inning or later, and would call on Ohtani to record a save. That's it.
The only way using Ohtani in relief would backfire in that spot is if Ohtani were to blow a save, and the game would remain tied after his appearance. If that were to happen, it'd be unfortunate, but it'd be hard to fault Roberts for using the best pitcher he'd have available to him.
What Roberts cannot do is what many Dodgers fans might want him to do: use Ohtani in the middle innings. Sasaki has been lights out in the ninth inning, but the bridge to get to him has been incredibly wobbly all postseason. Using Ohtani in, say, the seventh inning instead of Emmet Sheehan or Blake Treinen would be an absolute dream scenario on paper, but doing that risks losing his bat when the Dodgers would almost certainly need it.
Dodgers fans, and frankly baseball fans everywhere, should want to see Ohtani pitch out of the bullpen; it'd be beyond electric. However, the rules make it so that for the most part, it'd be inopportune even for a bullpen-needy team like the Dodgers to use Ohtani out of the 'pen unless they're winning in the ninth inning or later. Using him at any other time would be doing the Dodgers a disservice.