Shohei Ohtani just announced his 2026 Cy Young campaign at Dodgers spring training

This season represents the first time the Los Angeles Dodgers can fully unleash Shohei Ohtani to his full potential. As a hitter, his greatness has been on full display, but on the mound, they've taken things slow. Los Angeles didn't rush him back following his Tommy John surgery and was careful to keep his workload light once he finally returned to pitching.

Stronger and healthier than last year, the expectations are growing. Dave Roberts said at the beginning of camp that Ohtani expects to be in the Cy Young conversation in 2026. He took the first major step towards writing that story on March 18.

Taking on the rival San Francisco Giants, Ohtani made his first-ever spring training start for the Dodgers. With that, the bubble wrap was officially removed, and the game's most unique player was unleashed as much as one can be in a spring training start.

Ohtani threw 4 1/3 innings, tallying 61 pitches in total. In the outing, he didn't give up a run while striking out four and surrendering just two hits and a walk. It was exactly what you wanted to see.

Shohei Ohtani showed a little bit of everything in his Dodgers spring training pitching debut

The 31-year-old brought the gas, flirting with 100 MPH on the radar gun, and was responsible for four of the five fastest pitches in the contest. Overall, his fastball sat at 97.6 MPH, a tick down from last year, but certainly not bad considering it was his first start of the spring.

He also showed off his entire repertoire. Reaching back for six different pitches in total, and regularly mixing in five, including his sinker, splitter, sweeper, and curveball to go along with the heater, he already looks ready for the regular season, despite having little time to shake off the rust.

If he's already almost up to full velocity and commanding his expansive arsenal despite the late start to his spring as a starter, he's putting himself on track to accomplish his Cy Young dreams.

It won't be easy. Health will be paramount. As you know, he means so much to the Dodgers offensively that they will do anything to avoid an injury on the mound, taking him out of their lineup as well. He might also have his opportunities limited if the Dodgers use a six-man rotation at times to keep everyone fresh.

The competition will be fierce, with aces littered throughout the National League, including other frontrunners like Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates and even Ohtani's own teammate, Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

But if we've learned anything about Ohtani, it's that the rules that the rest of us mortals abide by don't apply to him. While we could look for a handful of reasons why he'd be a bad bet, those obstacles aren't the same for him as they are for most. And with a strong debut on the mound, he's already cleared a major hurdle, and once he gets a head of steam, he'll be hard to bet against.