LOS ANGELES — Another day, another ominous twist in Shohei Ohtani’s health saga.
Knee and bicep issues have already reduced the two-way sensation to a one-way layoff for the remainder of the year.
However, for the next two weeks, he is neither.
Ohtani’s insistence on trying to play through the pain for the past three months — and the Dodgers’ unwillingness to shut him down and place him on the injured list before he got to that point — had relegated the four-time MVP to mostly spectator status with the postseason just weeks away.
On Wednesday, Ohtani was held out of the lineup for the sixth time in the Dodgers’ last seven games.
And with just 16 games left in the regular season, he will now seek the IL stint the Dodgers have spent months trying to avoid.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think we tried to kick the can as hard as we could.”
In Ohtani’s place, the Dodgers plan to call up top prospect Josue De Paula directly from Double-A to make his MLB debut on Friday. De Paula, prospect no. 6 overall in the sport according to MLB Pipeline, will serve primarily as the team’s DH for the next two weeks, but could also find some time as a corner hitter.
The 21-year-old played at Double-A Tulsa, where he hit .303/.401/.547 with 27 home runs and 31 steals. But the excitement of De Paula’s addition is tempered by the reason for his addition.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
A week ago, Ohtani went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in a game against the Cardinals and looked visibly uncomfortable at the plate, flailing his arm between half-hearted swings. He was mired in a 6-for-46 stretch without a home run over his last 12 games at that point.
It’s clear that Ohtani’s injuries were causing him problems at the plate, despite what he was telling his team and what Dodgers officials were admitting publicly. The next day, general manager Brandon Gomes tried to dismiss what seemed obvious to anyone who had watched Ohtani over the last few weeks.
“I just think there’s also just the ebb and flow of the season, and what to attribute things to and what not is very hard to say,” Gomes said. “We haven’t had any indication that he’s not feeling well enough physically to go out and play.”
Ohtani then sat each of the next four games.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The hope was that the time off would help Ohtani’s body get to a place where he could return as a hitter. He returned to the lineup Monday and went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
The Dodgers then planned to give him Tuesday off and continue to sprinkle in off days the rest of the regular season to try to get him as good as possible before October.
But Ohtani was expected to return to the starting lineup for Wednesday’s series finale against the Reds, so it was a surprise when he was no longer in the lineup.
“There was a concussion on Monday that he wasn’t feeling well,” Roberts explained Wednesday afternoon. “He hasn’t fully recovered since Monday. So the thought is to give him today and then get together with him, the medical staff and figure out what the next steps are.”
Clearly, communication between Ohtani and the Dodgers remains a work in progress.
(Photo by Melina Pizano/Getty Images)
Roberts didn’t know about Ohtani’s setback the day after that painful swing. Ohtani was bowled Tuesday and was expected to be available off the bench “in a big spot” that night before reporting his discomfort from the previous day’s game.
The main issue this time was Ohtani’s arm, according to Roberts.
“It’s not really localized and that’s why when you see him a week ago waving his arm, it’s just the arm,” Roberts said. “So it’s not specific to the elbow or the shoulder. It’s just his bicep, his arm, but it’s not a specific thing.”
It’s not where the Dodgers hoped they would be as they push toward the playoffs, months after Ohtani first reported knee and bicep soreness.
(Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
Ohtani hasn’t played in a game since July 3, and every attempt to return since then has run into setbacks that have clearly affected his performance at the plate. He’s slashing .198/.294/.396 since Aug. 8, when he first started his hitting program. He is hitting .186 since Aug. 14, when he threw his first bullpen session in more than three weeks.
Those sessions are now done.
On Monday, after months of delaying the decision, Ohtani finally acknowledged that he would shift his focus strictly to hitting — the only logical choice at this point as he struggles to get to the plate.
Two days later, however, he is now too injured to do so.
This will be Ohtani’s first stint in IL since he joined the Dodgers prior to the 2024 season.
The Dodgers didn’t place him in the IL in June when he first reported his knee soreness. They didn’t in July, when he first reported the biceps problem while dealing with knee soreness that required an injection during the All-Star break.
They didn’t do that a week ago, when he was clearly compromised at the plate, or during a second half in which he has a .246 batting average and .332 on-base percentage.
“It hasn’t really been something we’ve discussed,” Gomes claimed last Thursday.
A week later, however, those discussions began.
“I think we tried to play both teams and try to play it, not play it,” Roberts said. “And then ultimately after not playing him for four days and then playing him and not being able to play a day after a day off, it was more just rallying and saying, ‘Hey, how are you going to feel on Friday? How will you feel on Saturday? Talking to the doctors and the coaching staff, it wasn’t too sure he was going to be in a much better position off the table.”
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The timing is not ideal.
Because Ohtani is a two-way player, he needs at least 15 days in IL. And because he played Monday after four days off, he won’t be eligible to return until Sept. 23. That would give him just a maximum of five games before the end of the regular season to try and find his rhythm.
In retrospect, Roberts wishes the team had treated him differently.
“I think if we look at now, here today, I’d like to go back and put him in IL,” Roberts admitted. “But I felt at that point in time, we all felt that giving it four days was enough.”
Even though it wasn’t, Roberts remains confident that Ohtani will be back this year. He reiterated several times that Ohtani would be in the lineup if the Dodgers were in the postseason now, and he thinks Ohtani will only need the minimum IL stay.
The question no one can answer is what it will look like when it returns.
If he can’t find his usual form, the Dodgers’ late decision threatens to be their undoing.
“He’s going to be in a much better place than he was today,” Roberts said. “Will he be 100 percent? Probably not. But I think with the time we’re getting now, he’ll be in a good place to finish the season.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the LA Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU graduate, Rowan was born in California, raised in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.