LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani threw his first bullpen session in a month on Saturday, but the reigning NL MVP still has plenty of work to do before he takes the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ohtani threw more than 20 pitches in the bullpen at Dodger Stadium after throwing long toss in the outfield. The two-way superstar was also in his customary leadoff spot in the Dodgers’ lineup as the designated hitter for their series finale against the Detroit Tigers.
He hadn't thrown off a mound since Feb. 25, when he paused his pitching work in spring training to prepare for the regular season as a hitter. Ohtani has still thrown regularly on flat ground in the ensuing month.
Dave Roberts speculated earlier in the year that Ohtani might be able to make his pitching debut for the Dodgers by May, but the manager reiterated Saturday that there's no firm timeline.
“It’s going to be a while,” Roberts said. “I think that you start with the natural progression of a bullpen (session), and you’ve got to then mix different pitches in to face hitters again. So I don’t have a timeline. I don’t think anyone does, but we’re a ways away.”
Ohtani hasn’t pitched in a major league game since he had surgery on his right elbow in September 2023 during his final month with the Los Angeles Angels. He had more surgery on his left shoulder last November after recording the first 50-homer, 50-stolen-base season in major league history and leading the Dodgers to their World Series championship.
The Dodgers have the luxury of time with Ohtani, who is in the second season of his 10-year, $700 million contract. He already has two homers among his six hits with 1.286 OPS in the first four games of the new season.
Los Angeles' rotation is loaded at the moment with newcomers Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki pitching alongside Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Dustin May.
But the Dodgers have a lengthy recent history of serious injuries to their starting pitchers, and Ohtani's return likely will allow the team to establish a six-man rotation, since Ohtani won't take up a roster spot as a pitcher.
“I think that we’re still a very good club with him as a DH, obviously,” Roberts said. “We still want him to pitch. He wants to pitch, and I do think that he can handle it. He’s done it in the past. I think the question is, ‘How much do we need him right now?’ And I think we’ve answered that. His health is most important. It’s paramount, and so whenever that time is, his buildup reaches that full maturation, he’ll pitch for us.”
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Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani, top, celebrates in the dugout after hitting a solo home run during the seventh inning of a home-opening baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Thursday, March 27, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Microsoft has fired two employees who interrupted the company's 50th anniversary celebration to protest its work supplying artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli military, according to a group representing the workers.
Microsoft accused one of the workers in a termination letter Monday of misconduct "designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event.” Microsoft says the other worker had already announced her resignation, but on Monday it ordered her to leave five days early.
The protests began Friday when Microsoft software engineer Ibtihal Aboussad walked up toward a stage where an executive was announcing new product features and a long-term vision for Microsoft's AI ambitions.
“You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military," Aboussad shouted at Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman. "Fifty-thousand people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.”
The protest forced Suleyman to pause his talk while it was being livestreamed from Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington. Among the participants at the 50th anniversary of Microsoft's founding were co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer.
Microsoft said Suleyman calmly tried to de-escalate the situation. “Thank you for your protest, I hear you,” he said. Aboussad continued, shouting that Suleyman and “all of Microsoft” had blood on their hands. She also threw onto the stage a keffiyeh scarf, which has become a symbol of support for Palestinian people, before being escorted out of the event.
A second protester, Microsoft employee Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted a later part of the event.
Aboussad, based at Microsoft's Canadian headquarters in Toronto, was invited on Monday to a call with a human resources representative at which she was told she was being fired immediately, according to the advocacy group No Azure for Apartheid, which has protested the sale of Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to Israel.
An investigation by The Associated Press revealed earlier this year that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The story also contained details of an errant Israeli airstrike in 2023 that struck a vehicle carrying members of a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother.
In its termination letter, Microsoft told Aboussad she could have raised her concerns confidentially to a manager. Instead, it said she made “hostile, unprovoked, and highly inappropriate accusations” against Suleyman and the company and that her “conduct was so aggressive and disruptive that you had to be escorted out of the room by security.”
Agrawal had already given her two weeks notice and was preparing to leave the company on April 11, but on Monday a manager emailed that Microsoft "has decided to make your resignation immediately effective today.”
It was the most public but not the first protest over Microsoft's work with Israel. In February, five Microsoft employees were ejected from a meeting with CEO Satya Nadella for protesting the contracts.
“We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard,” said a statement from the company Friday. “Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate. We are committed to ensuring our business practices uphold the highest standards.”
Microsoft had declined to say Friday whether it was taking further action, but Aboussad and Agrawal expected it was coming after both lost access to their work accounts shortly after the protest.
Dozens of Google workers were fired last year after internal protests over a contract it also has with the Israeli government. Employee sit-ins at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California targeted a $1.2 billion deal known as Project Nimbus providing AI technology to the Israeli government.
The Google workers later filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in an attempt to get their jobs back.
CORRECTS DATE - A pro-Palestinian demonstrator, Ibtihal Aboussad, is escorted away by security as they interrupt Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman during a presentation of the company's AI assistant, Copilot, ahead of a 50th Anniversary presentation at Microsoft headquarters, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)
