It’s been more than two months since Shohei Ohtani last threw a pitch in a major league game, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts downplayed the idea that Ohtani could return to the mound before the end of 2026, whether in the regular season or the postseason. Roberts didn’t “officially” confirm Ohtani’s pitching shutdown when speaking with Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register and other reporters today, “but obviously, if you look at the schedule, how much he pitched in the last week, I think we can all do the math.” Ohtani hasn’t pitched since a bullpen session on Aug. 28, which was supposed to be the final step before Ohtani started the Dodgers’ game against the Tigers last Sunday. While that outing would have been just a one-inning assignment as a starter, the plan was for Ohtani to gradually rebuild his arm strength over increasingly longer stretches of game action, so Los Angeles could have at least had the option of using Ohtani as a more or less normal starter in the playoffs. However, those plans were ruined when Ohtani cut out of the bullpen on August 28 due to discomfort specifically in his right knee and soreness in his right biceps. The situation escalated until Ohtani was completely out of the Dodgers’ lineup for the final four games, but Roberts feels Ohtani could return to his regular duty as designated hitter on Monday as he was “feeling good” after a batting practice session on Saturday. Ohtani’s two-way status complicated matters, as he has to be placed on the 15-day injured list for pitchers instead of the 10-day disabled list for position players. If the 10-day IL option were available, it’s entirely possible the Dodgers would have already retroactively put Ohtani on the 10-day deadline. Even that might have been overly cautious if Ohtani actually feels good enough to play on Monday, and putting him on the 15th would have (unnecessarily) left one of the game’s best hitters on the shelf for longer. It should be noted that Ohtani hasn’t been hitting as usual for a month now, as he has hit .200/.303/.400 with four home runs in his last 109 plate appearances. This roughly coincides with the time Ohtani restarted his throwing progression after knee pain forced him to stop throwing for a couple of weeks. It could be that the stress of trying to further rehab a so-called “moving target” from injury (rather than the strict regimen of the UCL rehab process that Ohtani has followed twice in his career) while simultaneously playing regularly as a designated hitter was too much even for a player as unique as the two-way superstar. With the postseason approaching, the Dodgers seem happy to sacrifice Ohtani’s contributions on the mound to get him right at the plate. Los Angeles was able to win the 2024 World Series without Ohtani pitching, of course, and the Dodgers already have Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow as their projected top four for the upcoming postseason. With this impressive rotation plus other arms like Roki Sasaki, Eric Lauer, Justin Wrobleski and others capable of covering massive innings, having Ohtani pitch would almost have been a luxury.
