Under The Knife 6/18/25
Since 1960
No big intro today, but just a note that Gage Wood threw a no-hitter on Monday to keep Arkansas in the College World Series. A win or go home game and he goes out, K’s 19, and never lets someone touch the base paths. His team helped with some defensive gems, but I have a hard time thinking that Wood wouldn’t light up an NTangible test. Arkansas eliminated UCLA on Tuesday, so I’m curious to see how quickly Wood could come back and throw, if not start. LSU and Arkansas - two SEC rivals who have already faced off a couple times recently - will go Wednesday with Arkansas on elimination, then Thursday if necessary, win or go home.
I’m also curious to see whether MLB teams think him going deep (119 pitches, which is more than the MLB high this season!!!) and potentially coming back on short rest is a positive or negative. None of the draftniks I trust have Wood in the first round, so I’ll be curious as we work through the MLB Draft Combine (he won’t be there, of course) and the upcoming private workouts that happen ahead of the draft now that it’s at a logical spot in the calendar.
For now, let’s get to the injuries:
SHOHEI OHTANI, SP/DH LAD (sprained elbow)
A 28-pitch inning is never ideal, but in this instance, the Dodgers will take it. Shohei Ohtani went one inning, showing 99-mph heat, reasonable control, and command of all his pitches. The fact that he went deep on counts and had some bad luck with bloops and BABIP is one of those things. At the end, he was back to DH and there’s no issue with his elbow.
This was never going to be a normal rehab and with his two-way designation, the Ohtani slot is now functionally a bullpen game for at least the next few times out. I’m told Ohtani was supposed to be limited to one inning no matter the count and that 28 was “a bit concerning”, but that there’s no specific count/limit/goal or inning count next time. There was more than a little hinting between Joe Davis and Eric Karros that Ohtani and his team were driving this as much as anyone at the Dodgers.
I watched closely before the game and while I don’t believe Ohtani was wearing a Kinetic Arm, there was something that seemed bulky on his mid-bicep area, towards his torso. That’s not where a Driveline Pulse would go - and it was bigger - so I’m not sure if his shirt was just bunching or what. He did do a lot of selling of looking at the iPad in his warm ups, so Rapsodo is getting their money’s worth on him, as is New Balance and I’m glad to see a baseball player getting paid to endorse.
The next issue is when’s his next start and how much further will he go? The Dodgers won, get Emmett Sheehan back, and have more coming. They could be really free with their rotation right now, assuming that Dustin May doesn’t blow up the day before, or that Clayton Kershaw doesn’t do it the day before that. Ohtani lines up to go on Sunday now which has the benefit of a day off behind him. That’s the play, though planning for the Colorado trip that comes behind it is always quirky.
More on Lance McCullers, Justin Verlander, and six other injured pitchers below. Some stuff on hitters as well. Subscribe now and read it all, instead of reading just this.