Why Shohei Ohtani almost always wears long sleeves when he pitches for Dodgers

One of the most predictable things about Shohei Ohtani is that he will do something amazing on the baseball field, something very few or maybe no players have ever done before.

Another predictable aspect to Ohtani: He'll almost always wear long sleeves.

You'll pretty much never see Ohtani in his Los Angeles Dodgers uniform without long blue sleeves on.

Other players do this, too, of course. It's just quite consistent for Ohtani, even in the warmth of L.A.

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Why does Shohei Ohtani wear long sleeves?

Ohtani has never been asked publicly about his sleeves, but the reasoning likely aligns with other baseball players.

The long sleeves, especially if they're a kind of compression sleeve, can help with recovery.

Compression long sleeves encourage blood flow, getting blood to and from the heart quicker.

That allows internal resources to travel more quickly to where they need to go to aid in recovery.

Given Ohtani's role as a two-way player, every little bit can help toward keeping him healthy.

Some pitchers also like how the long sleeves get them warm and keep them warm, rather than feeling like muscles tighten up between innings.

Ohtani has been seen in short sleeves both in MLB and in Japan's NPB, but much more often, he's got the long sleeves.

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