The forecast was optimistic.

Provided that Shohei Ohtani doesn’t experience any setbacks from his 34-pitch mound session on Friday, he will throw another bullpen session or two, after which will face hitters a couple of times in simulated games.

“Then,” manager Dave Roberts said, “I would see him in a major league game.”

Ohtani’s potential return to pitching has to be a welcome development for the Dodgers, who are being reminded what it’s like to not have the two-way player in their rotation.

Ohtani last pitched in a game on July 3, but that’s only part of the problem.

His absence from the mound has forced the Dodgers to reduce the number of relievers on their active roster from eight to seven, which in turn has contributed to their firemen resembling arsonists in many of their recent games.

“Essentially,” Roberts said, “all of our relievers are overworked right now.”

The predicament in which the Dodgers now find themselves explains why they are as supportive as they are of Ohtani’s efforts to pitch again.

Because of Major League Baseball’s roster rules, when Ohtani is pitching, the Dodgers have an edge over other teams that can be, well, Ohtani-sized. 

Ohtani is expected to spend the remainder of the regular season gradually building up his arm strength, and that will limit the degree to which the Dodgers will be able to benefit from the Ohtani Rule. However, his status as a pitcher could provide them with a massive advantage in future seasons, which is why they need him to remain a two-way player for as long as he can.

Ohtani playing both ways will influence not only how the Dodgers construct their rosters but also how their players perform.

As was the case this year.

Here’s why: From opening day to Aug. 31, teams must have 26 players on their active roster. Of them, as many as 13 of them can be pitchers.(Rosters expand to 28 players on Sept. 1, with the maximum number of pitchers increasing to 14.)

Since Ohtani is classified as a two-way player, he doesn’t count against his team’s total number of pitchers. The Dodgers can therefore have 13 pitchers other than Ohtani.

For most of the season, that meant the Dodgers could have a roster that included a six-man starting rotation and eight-man bullpen, which led to Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell calling the Ohtani Rule “a bad rule.”

Dodgers starters pitched once every six or seven days instead of the customary five or six. The extra day between their starts helped them pitch deeper into games, and that limited the bullpen’s workload.

Everything changed when Ohtani went down with a sore knee.

The Dodgers were suddenly forced to choose between carrying a sixth starter or eighth reliever.  They couldn’t have both.

“We’ve missed that,” Roberts said.

Initially, the Dodgers went with five starters. When Blake Snell returned from the injured list, they returned to a six-man rotation.

“The six-man rotation is something we are kind of beholden to,” Roberts said.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is only three seasons removed from pitching in the Japanese league, and Roki Sasaki two. Yamamoto and Sasaki generally pitched once a week in their home country.

Roberts acknowledged the Dodgers could use an extra reliever, particularly now when they are near the end of a 13-day stretch in which they will play 13 games.

“It’s tough to navigate,” Roberts said. “We have a seven-man pen in the middle of 13 in a row.”

In the postseason, active rosters will consist of 26 players, including 13 pitchers – and that’s why the Dodgers will take whatever Ohtani can give them from the mound.

When Ohtani resumes pitching, he will be deployed as an opener. He will pitch an inning in his first start or two, two innings after that, and so forth. The Dodgers plan to bring him along at a deliberate pace, which could limit how stretched out he will be for the playoffs.

But even if Ohtani can pitch only an inning or two per game as an opener, that’s still an inning or two they won’t have to be covered by any of the team’s eight relievers. 

And by pitching this year, Ohtani will be positioning himself to pitch again next season. If he’s pitching, Yamamoto and Sasaki could stay on schedules in which they pitch once every six or seven days. But if Ohtani isn’t pitching, Yamamoto and Sasaki could have to pitch with less time between starts.

On the surface, that might not seem like much. It’s just a day a week, after all. But as the Dodgers’ recent troubles have shown, little things can add up to make a big difference.

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