Shohei Ohtani will not return before May
Shohei Ohtani may want to make his 2019 debut before May, but it does not appear to be on the agenda.
The Los Angeles Angels’ pitcher/DH is recovering from Tommy John surgery and is expected to at least hit this season, but manager Brad Ausmus pumped the brakes on an early return on Saturday.
Although Shohei Ohtani’s progress could lead to speculation that he’d be back before May, Brad Ausmus doused that idea today: “That won’t happen.” Ausmus said there’s a schedule and they won’t speed it up. #Angels
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) March 9, 2019
Ohtani has been very ambitious by setting himself an Opening Day target. That just doesn’t seem realistic, but progress is encouraging and we should still see him pretty early on in the season.