Quote:
Originally Posted by SackAttack
Basically if Ohtani were to DH, and then take the mound, his spot in the order then becomes the pitcher's spot. That means if he's replaced on the mound, the incoming pitcher then bats in his spot, as do any subsequent pitchers; you can double switch around that, but the bottom line is that once Ohtani sets foot on the field, there's a "pitcher's spot" in the lineup to deal with for the remainder of that game.
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So just to clarify this a little more:
a) The rule allows teams to forego the DH. So on a day Ohtani starts on the mound, the team could elect to forego the DH so he could also hit. However, the DH cannot be inserted later in the game, so there's a pitcher's spot in the lineup no matter what happens with Ohtani on the mound.
b) The rule also says that if the DH takes the field, the player the DH replaces forfeits his spot in the lineup to the pitcher. So, if Ohtani were to go from DH to 1B, the pitcher hits in the 1B's spot.
The rule does not speak to what happens if the DH replaces the pitcher, but following from a) and b) tells us that the proper application of the rule, should Ohtani go from DH to P, is that Ohtani's spot in the lineup then becomes the pitcher's spot, the pitcher still being Ohtani himself for the moment.
Once he leaves the game, the incoming pitcher takes his spot in the lineup; if the manager elects to double switch to prevent the new reliever from hitting, the pitcher's spot would switch with the lineup spot of the other defensive substitution, just as in the NL.