Shohei Ohtani injury scare could alter Dodgers’ October plans
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sent a text message to Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday night informing him that he wasn’t going to be in the lineup Thursday in the series finale against the Cardinals.
Ohtani responded with a salute emoji, Roberts said.
“At the end of the day, he wants to be in there,” Roberts said. “But I’m not going to just put him in there because of the name on the back of his jersey.”
That could be a push-and-pull situation for the rest of the season, as Ohtani continues to manage lingering pain in his right biceps and left knee.
The uncertainty surrounding Ohtani’s health — even though Roberts called an injured list stint “unlikely” — raises questions about the team’s plans.
It’s difficult to fully map out the Dodgers’ rotation plans without knowing whether Ohtani will pitch again this season. And the offense won’t be at its best until he has shaken his slump — Ohtani has just two hits in his last six games after hitting just .241 in August.
“I think great players always feel that their X percentage is better than the next person and they want to be available,” Roberts said. “There is a kind of trusting the player versus taking it out of their hands.
“I’ve had a lot of practice with Clayton [Kershaw]. And Shohei, I think it’s just more of trying to weigh the downside and what potential harm that could do for him and the ballclub versus it’s something that is what it is. That’s just trying to get as much information as we can from the training staff and hear what Shohei has to say.”
Ohtani, who was not made available to speak to reporters before the game Thursday, has not given an interview in over two weeks. He declined requests for comment through a Dodgers spokesperson twice last weekend.
Though Ohtani’s left knee has been the biggest impediment in his return to pitching — his last pitching start was July 3, and his throwing program has stalled twice since receiving an injection to address swelling and soreness — his right biceps is now a problem.
Ohtani reported that the area from his biceps to his neck was bothering him Wednesday night, Roberts said. That was why he kept shaking out his arm.
“It feels like an ebb-and-flow type thing,” general manager Brandon Gomes said of Ohtani’s biceps issue, which has flared at least two other times this season. “It’s hard to recover in August and September, so it’s like just being mindful of if he needs a day here and there, and having those conversations. He’s just one of one, and you can’t say, ‘Well, this guy feels this, therefore Sho’s going to be the same.’ So we have to treat it as a unique case.”
Shohei Ohtani strikes out against the St. Louis Cardinals in the 10th inning Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.
(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)
Both the biceps and knee injuries have lingered for months. But Ohtani hasn’t missed two games in a row all season, let alone landed on the IL.
“I think it’s just really hard to say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna knock something out in X amount of days,’” Gomes said. “But l think not having Shohei in the lineup for 10 days, or whatever it would be, is something that we would prefer not to do, and it really hasn’t even been something that we’ve discussed.”
Gomes also pushed back on the assumption that Ohtani’s struggles at the plate are connected to his physical ailments, even though the two have coincided.
“I just think there’s also just ebbs and flows of the season, and what to attribute things to and what not to is just too hard to say,” Gomes said. “We haven’t had any indication that he’s not feeling good enough physically to go out and play.
“I also think he’s a victim of his own greatness, of … if Shohei struggles for a bit and then it’s up in arms. Like I said, I don’t think there’s anything overly concerning at this point. We’ll continue to monitor and have conversations and see how he feels.”
If the Dodgers don’t put Ohtani on the IL, giving him consecutive days off could make sense. Roberts said he’ll make that decision Friday, after discussions with Ohtani and the training staff.
The Dodgers also have put off a decision regarding whether Ohtani should pitch again this season. But Roberts said this latest development would be “part of the math.”
Said Gomes: “Once again, we’ve got to see how he continues to feel. At some point, if it’s a, ‘Hey, the upside outweighs the downside,’ then we shut it down. Doc has said this, we’ll continue to say it: We’re not going to … compromise [his offensive performance]. But right now, not feeling that that’s necessarily a thing. We just don’t have enough information to feel strongly on that.”
Though it’s not a huge sample size, Ohtani restarted his throwing progression with catch play on Aug. 8. In 23 games since then, he’s posted a .704 OPS during his worst offensive month of his season.
The addition of left-hander Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline also took some of the pressure off Ohtani to return to pitching.
“It was an opportunity that our guys saw, and grateful that a deal was worked out,” Roberts said. “You look at where Shohei’s at, and Roki [Sasaki is] throwing a bullpen tomorrow but on the IL with the blister, so having a [frontline] starter [in Skubal] is huge. And then also getting to know the player, and how he has already impacted our guys, we’re very fortunate.”
