"It's gonna be a national holiday" - Mookie Betts hypes up Dodgers teammate Shohei Ohtani's mound debut in 2025

Shohei Ohtani and his team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, are both in top shape this season. Entering on Saturday, the Dodgers are leading the NL West with a 33-20 record.

However, the Dodgers fans and his teammates have not seen him on the mound as Ohtani is rehabbing from his last year’s Tommy John Surgery and is at least restricted to taking the mound till 2025.

In an interview with Dodgers All-Star/ MVP Mookie Betts on “On Base with Mookie Betts” by Bleacher Report, Betts shared their excitement about Ohtani’s return as pitching ace.

“I’m genuinely excited when he pitches,” Betts said. “Because I think it’s going to be a National Holiday the first day he pitches.”

Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers ace, who joined Betts on his show also shared the same enthusiasm for Ohtani's return to the mound.

“I can’t wait. It’ll be awesome,” Glasnow told Betts. “He’s already got one in LA. He might have two now. It’s crazy."

What Glasner was referring to by his "He's already got one in LA" is that the City of Los Angeles honored Shohei Ohtani by passing a bill to declare May 17 as “Shohei Ohtani Day”, which will be celebrated for the duration of his contract.

Ohtani, the reigning AL MVP, is having another excellent season. He leads the team in home runs (13), OPS (1.035), batting average (.340), and stolen bases (13) this season. And now, his strong pitching ability is also set to be unleashed; last year, he had a 3.14 ERA in 132 innings with 167 strikeouts in 23 starts with the Angels.

The Dodgers' rotation figures to be more formidable once Ohtani joins Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto there in the coming seasons.

Tyler Glasnow shares Shohei Ohtani recruitment message

In the same interview, Glasnow shared an old story where Ohtani sent a video with a simple message ahead of his Dodgers extension signing.

“It was like, I hope you signed with the Dodgers and I want to hit a lot of home runs for you and the team,” Glasnow told Betts.

The Dodgers acquired Tyler Glasnow and Manuel Margot in exchange for Ryan Pepiot and Jonny DeLuca from the Tampa Bay Rays last offseason. They extended Glasnow for a five-year, $136.5 million contract. This year, he's pitched for 67.0 innings with a 3.09 ERA in 11 games.

Glasnow says the most important thing in his career now is winning. And the fact that Shohei Ohtani is on the Dodgers, is actively recruiting other stars to join him, and also deferred a large portion of his massive contract, convinced him that LA was the right team to achieve the goal of winning.