Shohei Ohtani has voiced his interest in taking part in the Home Run Derby, but Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has plenty of reservations.
Ohtani admitted after Tuesday’s game that he has “feelings of wanting to do” the derby this year, but noted that he needs to discuss things with team doctors and personnel as he continues to recover from elbow reconstruction surgery. Roberts was asked about the possibility on Wednesday, and he sounded very reluctant to give his blessing.
“No one can argue that a manager wouldn’t want their player to swing as hard as he can for essentially 45 minutes when [that player] is supposed to be on a break, right?” Roberts said, via Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times. “But the other side is, obviously, he’s the biggest star in the game, and it makes [the derby] more attractive. So I think whatever he decides, I’ll support it.
“I don’t ever want to be the guy that says you can’t do it, because I wouldn’t want to have somebody tell me I couldn’t do it. But the surgery adds a different component. It’s rounds and rounds of [swings].”
Roberts’ stance is pretty clear: if it were up to him, Ohtani would sit out the event, but he also does not want to be the one to tell Ohtani he cannot do it. Ohtani previously took part in the derby in 2021, narrowly losing to Juan Soto in a memorable duel.
To date, Ohtani has not shown any indication that swinging the bat is hindering his rehab from offseason elbow surgery in any way. However, there is a big difference between taking a few swings a game and taking dozens of max-effort swings in the span of a minute or two. Considering how set Ohtani is on pitching again, he will not want to jeopardize that.
