Surprising about Ohtani because they were saying he could theoretically have been back by the World series. But that never made sense because even if he was cleared to pitch, you wouldn't pitch a guy who hasn't pitched in a year and has had no time to ramp up. That being said, if he could have been theoretically ready by late Oct, early Nov, why wouldn't he be ready for early April?

I think they are just tempering expectations here as they will likely give him a lot of extra time in spring training to ramp up and build back up to starting pitching innings. Maybe they will bring him in for one or two innings but aren't trying to get people's hopes up.