Following a prolonged absence from the Dodgers’ starting rotation due to a lingering left knee injury, Shohei Ohtani is finally nearing the end of his recovery process as a pitcher.

And suddenly, as manager Dave Roberts said on Sunday, the two-way star’s return to the mound could happen sooner than the team had initially indicated.

A day after Ohtani threw 30 pitches in a live batting practice session at Dodger Stadium — marking his first time facing hitters since he last started a game as a pitcher on July 3 — Roberts said the right-hander could now be ready to return to game action as a pitcher.

Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers throws live batting practice before a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, August 22, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (2026 Getty Images) Getty Images

Ohtani is scheduled to throw a bullpen session during the team’s upcoming series in Atlanta this week. After that, the team will decide if he is ready to rejoin the Dodgers’ rotation or if he will need one more session of live BP first; something that had been originally expected during Ohtani’s buildup in recent weeks.

In the former scenario, Ohtani could make his pitching return sometime next week, Roberts said.

It wasn’t clear if that could happen during the team’s series in Detroit next weekend or once the club returns to Los Angeles for a homestand that begins against the Cardinals on Sept. 1.

Either way, it represents an encouraging sign for the 32-year-old’s pitching status, bolstering his chances of getting completely built up in time to potentially make full-length starts in the postseason.

“I think it’s more of how the ‘pen goes and to be quite honest how Shohei feels,” Roberts said. “If he feels like he can take on a game and throw an inning, great.”

Indeed, whenever Ohtani returns to the Dodgers’ rotation, it will be with an initially limited workload.

However, Roberts said the club will likely increase Ohtani’s workload more quickly than it did last year, when he returned from a second career Tommy John surgery by building up one inning at a time.

The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani is planning to return to the mound sooner than expected. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

Last season, Ohtani made two one-inning starts upon returning to the mound in June, then two two-inning starts, then three three-inning starts and so on. He did not complete six full frames until his regular-season finale, in his 14th outing of the year.

This time, though, Ohtani is not starting from scratch, having made 14 starts at the beginning of the year (with an 8-2 record and 1.79 ERA) before he was sidelined as a pitcher by his knee injury.

And when asked about the pace of Ohtani’s forthcoming buildup on Sunday, Roberts confirmed that the team will “be a little bit more aggressive” this year.

That could be important for Ohtani’s postseason pitching role, giving him time to potentially build back up to full-length starts come October.

Previously, it seemed possible that Ohtani might be limited to only being a glorified opener, capable of taking down only a handful of innings early in games. But now, he could give the team another legitimate starting option, along with a rotation that is also slated to feature Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow.

In the meantime, a member of the current rotation, left-hander Eric Lauer, is slated to shift into a piggyback role out of the bullpen.

He will be available to pitch bulk innings on Tuesday, when Glasnow will make his own return from a back injury. Then, Lauer will follow Ohtani in each of his starts, providing bullpen coverage as the two-way star races to make a complete comeback from his knee injury.