NEWNow you can listen to Pak Gazette articles!
Needless to say, being a unicorn, Shohei Ohtani certainly has “exceptions.”
Major League Baseball allows 13 pitchers on a roster, but the Los Angeles Dodgers, including Ohtani, have 14. That’s because Ohtani is officially listed as a two-way player, not a pitcher.
During a game in Philadelphia on Monday, Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell was asked about the 13-pitcher rule when, unprovoked, he hinted that the Dodgers and Ohtani would receive “special consideration.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON PakGazette.Com
Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) pitches against the Toronto Blue Jays in the fifth inning during Game 4 of the 2025 World Series at Dodger Stadium. (Kirby Lee/Image Images)
“I think it’s a rule to help the offense, more than anything, if you ask me,” Counsell said. “And then there’s a team that’s allowed to carry basically one of both, and they get special consideration. Which is probably the strangest rule… for a team.”
The two-way player designation is for players with at least 20 innings pitched in the major leagues and at least 20 starts in the major leagues as a position player or designated hitter, with at least three plate appearances in each of those games. The player has to reach those numbers in the current season or in either of the two most recent ones.
The designation is effective for the 2020 season. Ohtani, 31, is the only current player who meets the criteria.
Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (17) celebrates after hitting a single against the Toronto Blue Jays in the eighth inning during game two of the 2025 MLB World Series at Rogers Center. (Dan Hamilton/Image Images)
SHOHEI OHTANI’S BASE STREAK FOLLOW-UP: OHTANI TIES CHOO, MILLAR WITH 52 RIGHTS
“There’s no other player like that, but a team has different rules for that player,” Counsell said.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, however, defended the rule and noted that it is available to everyone.
“The thing is, it certainly benefits us, because we have the player,” Roberts said in Colorado. “But that’s something that any team that had Ohtani would have that player.”
“We’re more than willing for other teams to go out and find a player who can do both. He’s an exception because he’s an exceptional player. It is what he is.”
Entering the 2022 season, months after Ohtani’s day was cut short after pitching just a third of an inning while batting leadoff, Major League Baseball established a rule that if a starting pitcher was in the batting lineup, he could remain in the lineup even after being taken off the mound as a two-way designated player.
Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates after hitting a home run during the seventh inning against the Toronto Blue Jays in game three of the 2025 World Series at Dodger Stadium on October 27, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE Pak Gazette APP
During the World Series and even earlier this month, Ohtani drew attention to apparently longer warm-up sessions on the mound because he had been on the base paths.
