threw his third live se sion against hitters today and, as , his 44 pitches acro s three simulated innings of work went so well that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts went as far as to admit that the organization hasnt completely ruled out the idea of Ohtani returning to the mound sooner than previously expected. The expectation in recent weeks has been that Ohtani would return to the mound at some point following the All-Star break, which runs from July 14 to July 17 this year. Today, however, Harris notes that Roberts indicated to reporters that theres a north of zero chance that Ohtani is pitching in major league games before the break. Its a notable update on Ohtanis timeline, even though Robertss phrasing hardly frames the idea of a return before the midsummer cla sic as guaranteed or even likely. Ohtanis timeline has been kept extremely vague by Dodgers officials ever since he began shortly after Opening Day after his pitching rehab was in late February. Prior to that pause, the Dodgers were thought to be targeting a return to pitching at some point in May for Ohtani, but the timeline was pushed back to at some point in the second half after the club began to slow down his rehab proce s. In recent weeks, Roberts and team officials had begun to point to the All-Star break as the point after which Ohtani pitching in big league games for the Dodgers could be on the table. Greg Stefan Jersey That the po sibility of him pitching before then has been acknowledged publicly at this point underscores that his rehab has been going quite well to this point, but could also be an acknowledgement of the Dodgers significant needs in the rotation. The Dodgers sport a 40-27 record at the moment thats excellent on paper but doesnt quite live up to the lofty expectations hoisted upon the reigning World Series champs before the season began. Theyre just 1.5 games up on the Giants in the NL West, and would finish half a game back of the Cubs for a bye through the Wild Card round of the playoffs if the season ended today. I sues with starting pitching have been the biggest thing holding the Dodgers back from pulling away from the rest of the league this year, as their 4.66 FIP in the rotation is worse than every NL club except the lowly Rockies. With eight starting pitchers currently on the IL and Ohtani also sidelined, L.A. is currently operating with a patchwork rotation that features , , , and . Yamamoto is in the NL Cy Young conversation this year, but Kershaw and especially May have pitched more like back-of-the-rotation veterans this year than the dominant arms theyve been in previous seasons. Virtually any rotation in baseball would be better off with Ohtanis electric arm in the mix, but the state of the Dodgers pitching staff could make them especially eager to get Ohtani back into the fold. Of course, thats not to say theyre about the rush their two-way superstar back into pitching before theyre confident hes ready. It would have been easy for the Dodgers to make Ohtani in at least some capacity during last years playoff run, when the pitching staff was down so many starters they had to run regular bullpen games throughout the playoffs. They elected not to do so, however, instead prioritizing making sure Ohtani was fully healthy and ready to resume pitching before risking putting him on the mound in a big league game again. Even with todays comments from Roberts, theres little reason to think the Dodgers would send Ohtani out to the mound at Dodger Stadium before the break unle s theyre completely confident hes ready to resume pitching at a high level. Ted Lindsay Jersey