NEW YORK (AP) — Shohei Ohtani is scheduled to face hitters this weekend for the first time in his recovery from right elbow surgery.
The two-way superstar originally planned to throw live batting practice Saturday afternoon at Citi Field before the Los Angeles Dodgers play the New York Mets. But after the Dodgers needed 13 innings to win 7-5 on Friday night in a rain-delayed game that ended about 1 a.m., manager Dave Roberts told reporters Ohtani decided to push back the session to Sunday because of the long, late night.
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Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani celebrates his solo home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Los Angeles, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani bats during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Los Angeles, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani jogs back to the dugout after grounding out during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Los Angeles, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani winces after being hit with his own foul ball during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
It's the next step for Ohtani as he works toward returning to the mound. He had surgery on Sept. 19, 2023, the second major operation on his right elbow since he arrived in the majors, and he hasn't pitched in a big league game since Aug. 23 that year for the Los Angeles Angels.
“It’s a progression. Progress for Shohei,” Roberts said. “He doesn’t tip his hand very often, as far as emotions. But I don’t see how he couldn’t feel that it’s starting to become more realistic.”
There is no target date yet for Ohtani's pitching debut with the Dodgers, though expectations are it could come in July.
“A lot of it is going to be contingent on how he’s feeling and then what the next step is,” Roberts said. "So, I don’t think anyone knows how the next couple months are going to go.”
Roberts wasn't sure how many pitches Ohtani will throw or which Los Angeles teammates he will face.
“I think that we’ve seen the bullpens for quite some time, so to see him going out there and trying to get some major league hitters out, I think we’re all anxious for that,” the manager said.
Ohtani mixed in breaking pitches during a throwing session Tuesday for the first time in his rehabilitation program. Before that, the right-hander had been limited to fastballs and splitters.
“The stuff looks good. It’s easy 94, 95 (mph) coming out of his hand. It’s a really good throw,” Roberts said. “I think we’re all anxious to see how it looks to hitters. When he decides to ramp it up, I’m very anxious with that, too. But it’s all on his schedule, it really is. When he’s going to introduce his slider to hitters, when he wants to really ramp up velocity — all that stuff is between him and the doctor.”
Ohtani threw a 50-pitch bullpen last Saturday, increasing from 35 pitches in his previous session.
Following that workout, the slugger went 0 for 6 with two strikeouts in an 11-9 loss to the Angels. Roberts acknowledged that as the intensity of Ohtani's rehab regimen on the mound increases, it could affect his offense at designated hitter.
“Shohei is very in-tune with his body. But there is even a possibility if we feel as we build up that he’s taxed on a particular Saturday, that he doesn’t play that game,” Roberts said. "I just don’t know how that looks. I really don’t. But I think that we should obviously be open to it.”
At this point, however, the defending World Series champion Dodgers aren't planning to have Ohtani make any minor league rehab starts on the mound that would take him out of the big league lineup.
“Obviously, the buildup’s important — but so is him taking five at-bats in a game,” Roberts said.
Ohtani was tied for the major league lead with 17 homers heading into Friday night's series opener against the Mets, a rematch of last year's National League Championship Series. The three-time MVP, who also had left shoulder surgery in the offseason, was batting .304 with 31 RBIs and a 1.053 OPS. He was leading the big leagues in runs with 52.
In other news, Roberts said right-hander Tyler Glasnow felt great after throwing 16 or 19 pitches Friday in his first bullpen session since going on the injured list April 28.
“Don’t know what that means as far as velocity, but I know he was getting after it pretty good,” Roberts said.
Glasnow (right shoulder inflammation) is one of 14 Dodgers pitchers on the IL.
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Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani celebrates his solo home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Los Angeles, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani bats during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Los Angeles, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani jogs back to the dugout after grounding out during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Los Angeles, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani winces after being hit with his own foul ball during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
TENERIFE, Spain (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization sought Saturday to reassure residents of the Spanish island where passengers of a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship are expected to be evacuated, issuing them a direct message that the virus was “not another COVID.”
The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, with more than 140 passengers and crew on board, is headed to Spain's Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, and is expected to arrive at the island of Tenerife early Sunday.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, were due on the island Saturday to coordinate the disembarkation of passengers and some crew.
“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment,” Tedros said in a message to the people of Tenerife.
“But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” Tedros added.
The WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said nobody on the Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus.
Hantavirus can cause life-threatening illness. It usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus.
Some on Tenerife say they are worried. On board the cruise ship, some Spanish passengers have voiced concern about being stigmatized.
“I tell you, I don’t like this very much,” said 69-year-old resident Simon Vidal. “Anyone can say what they want. Why did they have to bring a boat from another country here? Why not anywhere else, why bring it to the Canary Islands?”
Others said they empathized with the boat's passengers, but were still concerned.
“The truth is that it is very worrying,” said 27-year-old Venezuelan immigrant Samantha Aguero. She added: “We feel a bit unsafe, we don’t feel as there are 100% security measures in place to welcome it. This is a virus after all and we have lived this during the pandemic. But we also need to have empathy.”
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said passengers and some crew would disembark in Tenerife “under maximum safety conditions.”
The ship will not dock but will remain at anchor. Everyone disembarking will be checked for symptoms and won't be taken off the ship until a flight is already in Tenerife waiting to fly them off the island, Garcia said during a news conference in Madrid. There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.
Both the U.S. and the U.K. have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens. Americans are to be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska.
All Spanish passengers will be transferred to a medical facility and quarantined, Garcia said. Oceanwide has listed 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board.
Those disembarking will leave behind their luggage, Garcia said, and will be allowed to take only a small bag with essential items, a cellphone, charger and documentation.
Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to the Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, the minister added.
According to a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late Friday, Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for a medical evacuation plane equipped for infections diseases to be on standby in case anyone on the ship becomes ill. That person would then be transported by air to the European mainland.
The Dutch government will work with Spanish authorities and the ship company to arrange repatriation of Dutch passengers and crew as soon as possible after arrival in Tenerife, subject to medical conditions and advice from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the letter said. Those without symptoms will go into home quarantine for six weeks and be monitored by local health services.
As the ship is Dutch-flagged, the Netherlands may also temporarily accommodate people of other nationalities and monitor them in quarantine, it said.
Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked before the deadly outbreak was detected. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.
On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, Dutch officials and the ship’s operator have said.
It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a passenger.
Dutch public health authorities have been monitoring people who were on a flight that was briefly boarded by a Dutch ship passenger who later died and was confirmed to have hantavirus. Three people who were on the flight and had symptoms have all tested negative for hantavirus, Dutch National Institute for Public Health spokesperson Harald Wychgel told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Becatoros reported from Sparta, Greece. Associated Press reporters Angela Charlton in Paris and Helena Alves in Tenerife contributed to this report.
A Spanish Civil Guard officer inspects the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Media crew members stand in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Passengers on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, scan the horizon with binoculars during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger checks his camera inside his cabin on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Crew members of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, wait their turns for a first interview with epidemiologists, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, takes a photo of the ship's weighing anchor in Praia, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
