Shohei Ohtani was out of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup again on Friday, marking his first back-to-back absence of the season. The two-way star reported soreness in his neck and along his right arm during Wednesday’s game, leaving manager Dave Roberts to describe him as day-to-day.
Roberts said he is hopeful but not confident that Ohtani will avoid the injured list. “Hopeful,” Roberts said. “But I wouldn’t say confident. Hopeful. We’ll see.”
Ohtani hasn’t thrown a baseball since his abbreviated bullpen session last Friday, when he felt pain in his left knee and right bicep. In the past, he kept his arm active with weighted-ball drills, but Roberts said those haven’t happened for “a few days.” When asked what that means for his pitching progression, Roberts acknowledged, “Certainly pushes it back.”
Ohtani last pitched on July 3. Offensively, he still carries a .906 OPS with 30 home runs, and his mound numbers remain stellar at 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA. But he is mired in a slump: seven hits and 20 strikeouts over his last 51 at-bats, with a .241 average in August and just two hits in his last six games.
The Dodgers are growing concerned that Ohtani might be wearing down at the worst possible time. With three and a half weeks until the playoffs, the team is weighing how to manage his lingering right biceps and left knee issues. Roberts noted that Ohtani has been “very agreeable” about sitting out, but he hasn’t necessarily linked his physical ailments to his offensive struggles.
“What we saw a couple nights ago wasn’t him,” Roberts said. “So, clearly he was not feeling well.”
Ohtani has not spoken to reporters in more than two weeks, declining interview requests twice through a Dodgers spokesperson. His left knee has been the main obstacle to returning to the mound, with his throwing program stalling twice after an injection to address swelling and soreness. Now the right biceps area to his neck has flared up.
General manager Brandon Gomes called it an “ebb-and-flow type thing.” The biceps injury has bothered Ohtani at least two other times this season. “It’s hard to recover in August and September,” Gomes said, noting that Ohtani is a unique case and the team must treat him accordingly.
Gomes pushed back on the idea that Ohtani’s slump stems from his injuries. “I just think there’s also just ebbs and flows of the season,” he said. “We haven’t had any indication that he’s not feeling good enough physically to go out and play.” He added that Ohtani is a victim of his own greatness, noting that any struggle gets magnified.
The Dodgers have avoided placing Ohtani on the IL all season. Gomes said they haven’t even discussed a 10-day shutdown, and Roberts said Friday would bring a decision on whether to give Ohtani consecutive days off. The manager texted Ohtani on Wednesday night to let him know he wasn’t starting Thursday’s game. Ohtani replied with a salute emoji.
“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.”
Roberts has experience managing star players carefully, citing Clayton Kershaw. “I think great players always feel that their X percentage is better than the next person,” he said. “There is a kind of trusting the player versus taking it out of their hands.” He said he’ll weigh the downside and gather information from the training staff and Ohtani.
While Ohtani sits, the Dodgers squeezed out a 3-2 win over the Cardinals on Thursday, avoiding a sweep. Teoscar Hernández delivered a two-run walk-off double in the ninth. Tarik Skubal, acquired at the trade deadline, started and allowed two runs over six innings, but scattered ten hits and left with 102 pitches. Tommy Edman batted leadoff in Ohtani’s absence and collected four hits, scoring two runs.
The Dodgers also have Roki Sasaki on the IL with a blister, making Skubal’s presence more vital. Los Angeles now holds an 83-57 record. Roberts said the decision on Ohtani’s immediate future depends on Friday’s conversations and how he feels.
