Will Ohtani pitch in Toronto? Projecting Blue Jays-Dodgers starting rotations for the World Series
On the one hand, it’s not hard to blame Shohei Ohtani for not picking the Toronto Blue Jays a little under two years ago.
On the other hand, it is absolutely wild that the Jays and Ohtani’s Dodgers will meet up in the World Series starting Friday at the Rogers Centre.
For some, it looked like the two-way superstar skipping out on a contract with the Blue Jays in December 2023 could’ve been a death blow for the Toronto franchise that hadn’t had the type of postseason success it had imagined for years.
But one year after the Dodgers won their second World Series and the Blue Jays won just 74 games, the two teams meet with the biggest prize in baseball on the line.
Ohtani picked up the National League Championship Series MVP award after hitting three home runs and pitching six shutout innings in Game 4 alone.
But will Ohtani pitch in the World Series? And if so, will he be taking the mound against a Toronto team he opted against signing with?
Blue Jays-Dodgers projected starters
Toronto’s youngster Trey Yesavage might be the most sensible option to take the ball for Game 1, given that Kevin Gausman just came off a relief appearance in Game 7. It’d be the usual four days of rest for Yesavage, while Gausman would be operating off three days of rest since his last appearance, though he’d have five since his last full start.
The Dodgers’ full pitching staff has been well rested, meanwhile, with as terrifying a rotation as there is in baseball. And as good a pitcher as Ohtani can be, the Dodgers so far have turned to three others ahead of him in the rotation.
Given that trend, Ohtani would line up to be the Game 4 starter against Toronto, which is taking place in Los Angeles.
Here’s an educated guess at how the pitchers could look, with Los Angeles’ pitchers listed first:
- Game 1: Blake Snell vs. Trey Yesavage
- Game 2: Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Kevin Gausman
- Game 3: Tyler Glasnow vs. Shane Bieber
- Game 4: Shohei Ohtani vs. Max Scherzer/bullpen Game
- Game 5: Blake Snell vs. Trey Yesavage
- Game 6: Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Kevin Gausman
- Game 7: Tyler Glasnow vs. Shane Bieber
While the managers of each team are likely to make the call on a game-by-game basis, we can only imagine this could end up being a World Series full of all-time great pitching matchups.