Shohei Ohtani is willing to make a significant move during the postseason to give the Los Angeles Dodgers more flexibility.
Ohtani told Japanese media Tuesday that he would be willing to play in the outfield during the playoffs. This would allow the Dodgers to use him as a relief pitcher without having to sacrifice his bat in the lineup.
Shohei Ohtani told Japanese media tonight that he's been having internal conversations with the organization about possibly playing the outfield in order to be used in relief.
— Michael J. Duarte (@michaeljduarte) September 17, 2025
Ohtani can remain in a game as the designated hitter even if he starts as a pitcher. However, the team would not be able to start him as a DH and then put him on the mound in a relief role without losing the DH for the remainder of the game. By playing the outfield, the Dodgers would avoid this problem, and be able to shift Ohtani between the mound and the outfield late in games if they wanted to.
The flipside, of course, is that Ohtani would have to take the added risk of playing defense. The Japanese star played seven games as an outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels in 2021, but has otherwise been exclusively used as a pitcher or DH during his MLB career.
It is pretty obvious why the Dodgers would be interested in doing this. Their bullpen has been a mess recently, and managed to blow a brilliant start by Ohtani on Tuesday. The Dodgers have enough rotation arms that they could probably get away with using Ohtani as a reliever in short bursts.
Ohtani has a 3.29 ERA this season with 54 strikeouts in 41 innings. He could be dominant in limited duty as a reliever if the Dodgers are willing to take the risk of putting him in the outfield.
