Dave Roberts pointlessly teases Dodgers fans with Shohei Ohtani non-update

Dave Roberts has been relentlessly questioned on Shohei Ohtani's timeline to his Dodgers pitching debut, and his updates have typically been less than informative. Unlike the rest of the rehabbing starters on LA's shelf, there's less of an imperative that Ohtani returns to the mound in a timely manner. He's still hitting, and doing it very well, so while fans desperately want to see him pitch again and the team could use the help, it's not all he's on the roster to do.

Ohtani's been completing a throwing progression between games, and the Dodgers went as far as to post a hype video of his first live sim game to quiet any of the noise around the possibility of him never getting back to full two-way status. They've been working off of a vague "after the All-Star break" timeline for months.

However, Roberts provided another vague, less-than-helpful update on Ohtani's return. He said the possibility of Ohtani pitching before the All-Star break was "definitely not non-zero. It’s north of zero."

...okay? That could mean any number of things from tomorrow to July 13, which is the Dodgers' last game before the break. But it also still might not happen before the break at all.

At this point, it might be better to just not say anything at all until there's a firm date on the books.

Shohei Ohtani has a "north of zero" chance of making Dodgers pitching debut before the All-Star break

In his last sim game on Tuesday, Ohtani threw three innings and 44 pitches against minor leaguers and struck out six of his nine batters faced while giving up a hit and a walk.

The Dodgers can't afford to lose Ohtani to a rehab assignment, so his actual return date gets even muddier because fans won't be able to track how many minor league appearances he's made, how many pitches he's thrown, etc.

But, okay — we know that the Dodgers are dead set on getting Ohtani back to the mound at some point, and that's really all we need to know. Even if it's not until closer to the postseason, when they really need him the most, maybe they should just stay mum on the matter instead of getting fans' hopes up with nebulous timelines.

But Roberts is going to keep getting asked about it, and there's not much anyone can do about that other than hope the next "update" is actually something concrete.