Shohei Ohtani is finally heating up. Which Dodgers star hitter will be next?

Welcome to The California Post’s weekly Dodgers recap, where baseball writers Dylan Hernández and Jack Harris review the week that was, hand out player superlatives and take stock of the state of the season.Which Dodgers star will break out first?In this space last week, we wondered when Shohei Ohtani would get going.Then, he went 7-for-16 with a home run, two doubles and a .609 on-base-percentage in his past six games.So, now that he’s heating up (or, at least, looking closer to normal form), which big name will rebound for the Dodgers next?As of Thursday, the team had five veteran sluggers with an OPS between .700 and .750: Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, Kyle Tucker, Teoscar Hernández and Mookie Betts* (he has played just eight games while on the IL).Not disastrous starts by any means.

But certainly below where each of them would have been expecting.Freeman has the best contact metrics of that group, ranking in the top quarter of MLB hitters in expected batting average, average exit velocity, barrel percentage and hard-hit rate.But he also looks the coldest now, with just three hits in his last 25 at-bats.Smith remains one of the most disciplined hitters in the league, ranking top 20 in both chase and whiff rate.

But his slugging percentage is just .382, almost 100 points below his career average.Hernández’s struggles have manifested from a recurring problem with strikeouts, trailing only Ohtani for most on the team with 31.And then there’s Tucker, who has flashed some signs of resurgence –– he has hits in six of seven games, including four doubles and his first Dodgers walk-off –– but hasn’t truly hit his stride at either the plate (where he is hitting only .241 with a .702 OPS) or in the outfield (where he has negative marks in both defensive runs saved and outs above average).Shohei Ohtani (7-for-16, HR, 2 RBI this week; .273 average, .897 OPS this season)Ohtani considers himself a slow starter offensively.But, even after a strong final wee...