In an offseason where everything has seemed to come up favorably for the Los Angeles Dodgers, it’s no surprise that the team has also received a nice benefit with Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani will officially have two-way status for the 2025 season. That means Ohtani will be listed as a position player who is also eligible to serve as a pitcher without being subject to MLB’s rules on position players pitching. He also will not count against the Dodgers’ roster limit of 13 pitchers.
Ohtani is receiving this favorable treatment despite not pitching in the 2024 season while he was recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Players are eligible for two-way status if they meet the following two conditions during the same season, in either of the previous two seasons:
(1) 20 major league innings pitched.
(2) 20 starts as a position player or designated hitter, with a minimum of three plate appearances in each game.
Ohtani did not meet the conditions in 2024, but he did in 2023 when he pitched 132 innings for the Angels and had 599 plate appearances over 135 games. A change to the rule was made after the 2023 season to extend the two-way player eligibility to either of the previous two seasons.
MLB has rules in place governing position players being allowed to pitch, and how many pitchers can be allowed on a roster.
After a season in 2022 where a record was set for position players appearing in a game as a pitcher, the league updated its rules to restrict the practice. The new rules dictated that leading teams had to be up at least 10 runs in the 9th inning in order to have a position player pitch, while trailing teams could do so at any time they were down by 8 runs. Position players are allowed any time during extra innings.
If Ohtani does not meet the 20-innings pitched/20 starts as a position player with three plate appearances thresholds in 2025, maybe MLB would make yet another tweak to allow the Japanese star to be eligible to do both in 2026.
This ruling is helpful for the Dodgers considering they are planning to use a 6-man rotation for the season, and Ohtani is not expected to return to the mound until May. If Ohtani did not have this status, the Dodgers would have to carry one fewer pitcher on the roster since Ohtani would be considered a pitcher and taking up one of those limited spots.
