Ben Casparius News: Working behind Ohtani on Monday

Casparius is expected to pitch in bulk relief in Monday's game against the Padres behind starter Shohei Ohtani (elbow), who will serve as the Dodgers' opening pitcher, Jeff Spiegel of DodgerBlue.com reports.

After Casparius limited San Diego to one run over four innings in his second start of the season this past Wednesday, manager Dave Roberts said that the right-hander would be part of the rotation moving forward. Though Roberts implied that Casparius would be utilized as a traditional starter, the 26-year-old is instead on track to cover the bulk of the innings out of the bullpen Monday after the team elected to have Ohtani bypass another simulated game in order to make his 2025 debut as a pitcher. Ohtani is expected to be limited to 1-to-2 innings Monday and will likely need at least a couple more outings after that to get fully stretched out for a typical starter's workload, so it wouldn't be surprising if Casparius ended up piggybacking the two-way phenom the next time Ohtani's turn in the rotation comes up.