Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani has not played since Wednesday, when he struck out four times and winced noticeably at the plate.
On Saturday, the Dodgers held him out of the lineup for the third consecutive game because of pain in his right biceps.
Manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani’s path back to the field is predicated on how he responds to hitting in the cage, which he planned to do before Saturday night’s game against the Washington Nationals at Dodger Stadium.
“My expectation is that he’s going to hit today in the cage,” Roberts told reporters. “Once he hits and how he comes out of it, that’ll be telling for tomorrow.”
The injured list becomes a consideration if Ohtani is not trending in a positive direction Sunday, Roberts said.
Ohtani falls under the 15-day category for the IL, which covers pitchers and two-way players, as opposed to the 10-day list for position players. The Dodgers can backdate the move up to three days, akin to time served. So a 15-day window would be reduced to 12 days.
Although Roberts said he has not spoken to Ohtani about how he feels physically, the manager said he can get a hint from the player’s demeanor.
“When he doesn’t feel well physically, he gets more short and he’s not the same personality,” Roberts said, adding that Ohtani has seemed looser and more easygoing the past couple of days.
Ohtani was still considered day to day, and Roberts again teased his possible availability off the bench.
Roberts wasn’t quite as bullish, however, about Ohtani avoiding the injured list.
After describing an IL stint as “unlikely but not impossible” on Thursday, Roberts said Friday that he was “hopeful, but I wouldn’t say confident,” that Ohtani would avoid the IL.
There are a wide range of possibilities for Ohtani as he continues to deal with lingering pain in his right biceps. Though the Dodgers experimented earlier in the season with ways to manage his two-way workload — holding him out of the batting order on the day he pitched, giving him the day off after a start on the mound, or both — this is the first time he has missed two consecutive games. And he hasn’t pitched since July 3.
Roberts described Thursday as a “spa day,” meaning Ohtani rested, watched the game from the dugout and didn’t do any baseball activities. Roberts said Friday was a day to “start getting his body moving a little bit.”
“Let’s stay in communication, and let’s see when the time to give the green light is,” Roberts said.
Roberts said Ohtani has been “very agreeable” with the decision to rest him. Ohtani has declined multiple requests for comment over consecutive days through a team spokesperson.
“I think he wants to be out there, wants to play,” Roberts said, “but he’s understanding.”
An MRI scan of the area around his biceps and neck showed no structural damage, or as Roberts put it “nothing of note at all,” which is a promising sign. But Ohtani’s swings and body language Wednesday signaled that something was clearly wrong, affecting Ohtani’s play.
The fact that the Dodgers have not put Ohtani on the IL yet doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll be out fewer than 10 days — it just means that they can’t rule out an earlier return. Teams can backdate IL moves up to three days. But that hasn’t traditionally served as a hard deadline for the Dodgers to make IL decisions. It isn’t expected to in this case, either.
Shohei Ohtani is hurt. The Dodgers’ rotation is injured. The team is in a fairly long slump and a first round bye isn’t remotely guaranteed.
Although having an injured player take up a roster spot for more than a few days isn’t ideal, it’s easier to cover for the designated hitter spot than other positions. And there is no obvious replacement on the 40-man roster pushing for a call-up through an extended period of outstanding play. Those factors mitigate the urgency to make a move.
In Ohtani’s absence, the Dodgers have started outfielder Alex Call at DH against left-handed pitchers, with Dalton Rushing available off the bench in the later innings.
The setup has afforded Rushing more regular at-bats than initially expected when the Dodgers activated him this week. Because Rushing (elbow) is still working through a throwing program, the original plan was to have him pinch hit one at-bat per game until he was ready to return to catching duties.
The Dodgers also have not officially ruled out Ohtani’s return to pitching, seeing even one or two innings from him as a plus. But the longer he’s out, the less likely it’ll become.
Ohtani’s planned buildup from tossing live batting practice on Aug. 22, to preparing to possibly start a little more than a week later, instead ended with the Dodgers shutting him down from throwing. Ohtani hasn’t even gone through weighted plyo ball drills in “a few days,” according to Roberts.
Asked what that meant for Ohtani’s return-to-pitching timeline, Roberts said it “certainly pushes it back.”
The priority, however, is getting Ohtani back to himself on the offensive side before the postseason — whether that means a couple days off or more than a week.
Roberts described the two-day break from the lineup as not just a physical one, but also a mental reprieve for Ohtani. He recorded just two hits in his last six games (23 at-bats). And over the past four weeks, he has a .703 OPS — compared to his .903 OPS overall this season.
“With a lot of players, when they’re not feeling well physically it adds to the toll mentally and emotionally,” Roberts said. “So I think Shohei is like that, like most players. We’re just kind of balancing how many days is sufficient to then be worth the time to get back, versus running this play out of days off and it not being adequate.”
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.”
The Dodgers made a flurry of moves on Tuesday, as rosters expanded for September, the most surprising of which was activating catcher Dalton Rushing (sprained right elbow) off the injured list.
The Dodgers also activated catcher Will Smith (neck) from the IL, optioned outfielder Alek Thomas to Triple-A Oklahoma City and designated catcher Ben Rortvedt for assignment. With two extra active roster spots for the rest of the season, the team activated left-handed pitcher Justin Wrobleski from the IL and recalled infielder Alex Freeland from Triple-A.
Rushing has been on the IL since early August, has been working through a hitting progression, and according to manager Dave Roberts has also started a throwing program. But Roberts indicated over the weekend that he wasn’t necessarily expecting Rushing to be ready to be activated Tuesday.
Regardless of how far Rushing’s throwing has advanced, he can provide a left-handed bat off the bench — a role the Dodgers could also use in the postseason. The Dodgers still have catcher Hunter Feduccia on the roster, and he can serve as the backup to Smith.
Smith returns after being sidelined for almost three months by a nagging neck injury. Wrobleski (left forearm inflammation), on the other hand, spent just over two weeks on the IL, as the Dodgers kept an eye on his workload for the overall season.
Freeland, a switch hitter, also provides a left-handed bat. And his addition improves lineup flexibility: when he plays second base, that could free up Tommy Edman to move to the outfield.
DENVER — The imaging Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz underwent in Los Angeles on Wednesday morning revealed a “best-case scenario,” manager Dave Roberts said before the series finale against the Rockies.
“There were no findings, so that was good,” Roberts said. “MRI was clean. It doesn’t change the fact that he had this sensation in his neck. But I think to keep working on it, give it some rest as far as throwing the baseball.”
Díaz officially went on the IL for “neck inflammation,” but early theories on the injury, before he went to a specialist on Wednesday, suggested the issue could be related to the area around the trapezius, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
Roberts said Wednesday that the results suggested the injury was more muscular, rather than nerve related.
“I think he’d been feeling the tightness in his neck,” Roberts said. “But I think where it went to the other night, he hadn’t felt that sensation. So that’s what really checked him up.”
Roberts said he didn’t know exactly how long Díaz would be shut down from throwing, but he estimated that it probably would be only a couple of days.
The bullpen shuffle continued Wednesday, when the Dodgers activated right-hander Brock Stewart (right shoulder discomfort) from the 15-day IL. In a corresponding move, they designated right-hander Jonathan Hernández for assignment.
DENVER — The Dodgers are putting closer Edwin Díaz on the injured list for the second time this season, this time with inflammation on the right side of his neck, manager Dave Roberts said before the game against the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday.
The Dodgers are going to have Dr. Robert Watkins, who specializes in spine injuries, examine at Díaz’s neck in L.A. on Wednesday morning, Roberts said. He’s set to undergo imaging.
“It’s something he felt [Monday] night,” Roberts said before the Dodgers’ 7-6 win against the Rockies on Tuesday. “We don’t know if it’s something that has been there the last, call it, week or whatever but it showed its head last night. So we’re going to address it.”
The move comes after Díaz gave up nine runs and recorded three blown saves in a span of six appearances.
“I know Edwin is — I don’t know if it’s encouraged, but just know that there could be a reason why the stuff is not playing like it has in the past,” Roberts said. “And the neck, obviously, there’s ties with the whole body, the arm, and all that stuff matters. So I’m personally excited to kind of find something that kind of make us understand what’s going on.”
“We’ll know more after seeing Dr. Watkins,” Roberts said, “but given where he’s at, I don’t see a situation where he’d be out for the year.”
Díaz has only made 16 appearances for the Dodgers this season, recording an 11.85 ERA and 6.01 FIP. He spent three months on the IL after undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow in late April.
After collecting a save in a 4-2 win over the Seattle Mariners on July 29 in his first appearance back, Díaz was unable to show command in subsequent outings. He blew saves on consecutive days against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Aug. 7-8, and then blew a 4-2 lead last Thursday against the Milwaukee Brewers — which proved critical for the Dodgers in losing the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Brewers as the division leaders jostle for playoff seeding.
During the Dodgers’ 11-5 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Monday night, Díaz pitched the ninth inning and gave up three runs and four hits.
With Díaz no longer an option in save situations, left-hander Tanner Scott is set to slide into that role.
“I just wait for the phone to ring, I don’t care when,” Scott said after a four-out save Tuesday. “You get the adrenaline rush when your name’s called and just go out there and pitch.”
On Tuesday, Roberts turned to Scott to get the final out of the eighth inning, with runners on first and second in a two-run game. He induced left-handed pinch hitter Brett Sullivan to ground out to third.
Back out for the ninth he gave up a one-out double to Jake McCarthy’s and a two-out RBI single to Willi Castro. But the run was of no consequence.
“He’s been great,” Roberts said of Scott’s contributions this year, in multiple roles. “Tanner doesn’t complain. He’s always ready, wants to pitch, wants to help his teammates, his team. And certainly, given how last year went, for him to come back and right the ship, he’s been our most consistent reliever by far. I trust him, and I feel like you can use him in any situation.”
The Dodgers also recalled right-hander Emmet Sheehan on Tuesday as a multi-inning option out of the bullpen. Sheehan, optioned to triple A at the trade deadline for a reset, made two starts for Oklahoma City.
“I got the hang of it a little bit last year in the playoffs,” Sheehan said of pitching in relief. “I have the routine that I would have for starting, and that I have for coming out of the bullpen. So comfortable doing either one or whatever they want me to do.”
Ohtani may be ready for next step
Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani appeared to throw two simulated innings in his bullpen session on Tuesday, for a total of about 45-50 pitches.
When Roberts asked how it went, he said Ohtani gave him a thumbs up.
Roberts did not rule out the possibility of Ohtani throwing live batting practice back in Los Angeles as his next step.
“I could see that,” Roberts said.
Serving as the designated hitter Tuesday, Ohtani hit a two-run homer in the third inning. It was his third homer in two games and his 30th of the season. He’s reached the 30 home-run mark in six straight seasons.
“You’ve got to be available, you’ve got to be a high-performer,” Roberts said of the feat. “And Shohei this series is back to being who he is. I like the at-bat quality. I like the swing decisions. And obviously he’s hitting homers out with breaking balls, fastballs, a curveball tonight. When he goes, it certainly adds a lot of energy to our offense.”
