Manager Dave Roberts wouldn’t even say if he was taking 16 pitchers and 15 field players or whether it was the other way around.
“It’s one of those two combinations,” he said.
But the team did release a list of players who won’t be going after sending seven players to the team’s minor league camp.
The two biggest names on the list were right-hander Bobby Miller, who had been expected to fight for the fifth spot in the starting rotation, and infielder/outfielder Hyeseong Kim, who entered the spring among the favorites for the starting job at second base. Both were optioned.
Miller didn’t appear in a game after being hit by a line drive 11 pitches into his first appearance. Kim played in 15 games but hit .207 in 29 at-bats, striking out 11 times. Only four players had more at-bats than Kim, who appeared at second base, shortstop and center field.
“He’s going to stay here. He’s going to continue to log at-bats,” Roberts said of Kim, who will begin the season at triple A. “The last four games have been really good for him. He looks much more comfortable at bat. The defense has been really good, and it was good to see him in center field.
Barry Bonds: It’s Best for Shohei Ohtani to Give Up Pitching
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Barry Bonds doesn’t like making headlines anymore, he says, but he still has his opinions—particularly about two-way Japanese sensation Shohei Ohtani.
Major League Baseball’s all-time home run leader said in a wide-ranging interview last week that Ohtani shouldn’t pitch again.
“If you’re DH-ing and doing what you’re doing, why fix something that ain’t broken?” Bonds said. “Pitching again? That’s a lot of concentration. He might get hurt again. They’re asking a lot.”
Ohtani didn’t throw for the Los Angeles Dodgers last season while recovering from his second reconstructive surgery on his right elbow. Still, he won his second consecutive league MVP as a designated hitter and became the first player to amass 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in one season, with 54 and 59, respectively.
Ohtani last pitched for the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 23, 2023 against the Cincinnati Reds. He was revving up for a May return to the mound this season, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts recently said the team is slowing down Ohtani’s rehab progression. Bonds has a different idea for Ohtani if and when he returns.
“For me, he should come out of the bullpen if he comes back to pitch at all. That’s just my opinion,” Bonds said. “That would be cool. He’d be a solid closer or set-up man for anybody because he’s so good. He wouldn’t have to work as hard as being a starting pitcher. He might have a no-hitter going in the sixth inning and then have to try to complete that no-hitter. Then they want him to DH the next day?”
When noted that the logistics of Ohtani getting down to the bullpen to warm up in the late innings might not work while he still has to hit, Bonds said: “That’s true. You have to start. That makes sense. He could play a position, too. He could play the outfield. If he could steal 50 bases then he could play the outfield.”
Since Ohtani came over from Japan and signed with the Angels ahead of the 2018 season, he has made one relief appearance—in the final inning of the 2023 World Baseball Classic. His Nippon Professional Baseball team, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, stopped playing him in the outfield because of recurring injuries.
“If he can sit on the bench and hit every few innings then he could play the outfield,” Bonds said. “You’re not doing much of anything out there. You’re just standing there.”
Bonds, who retired from professional baseball in 2007, has remained around the sport as a valued resource for the San Francisco Giants; he mentors Giants hitters at the request of San Francisco’s new baseball operations regime of Buster Posey and Randy Winn. Bonds is especially focused on bringing along the club’s younger cohort.
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