Although the Los Angeles Dodgers got Shohei Ohtani back in their lineup on Monday, it appears that DH duties will be his sole role down the stretch.
Shortly after the Dodgers’ victory over the Cincinnati Reds, Ohtani confirmed to the media that he is focusing on hitting for the rest of the 2026 season. His season on the mound – and, by extension, his two-way season – is over.
“I’m going to be focusing on hitting moving forward,” Ohtani spoke through interpreter Will Ireton. “It’s disappointing. But I want to make sure that when I look back this season that I used this as an experience, a learning experience, and make sure that I use that as something to improve upon for next season.”
“Yes, he loves pitching, loves being a two-way player,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But right now, it just doesn’t make any sense.”
While it is certainly disappointing for both Ohtani and the baseball world that the 32-year-old two-way phenom will not bring his 1.79 ERA back to the mound, the writing had been on the wall for months.
Ohtani hasn’t pitched in a game since July 3 due to nagging discomfort in his left knee, an ailment that sidelined him for the All-Star Game that month. Since then, the aches and pains have piled up elsewhere in his right biceps and the right side of his neck, to the point that Ohtani was visibly in pain while hitting and needed a four-game reset prior to Monday.
From August 19 to September 2, Ohtani had only six hits in his last 46 at-bats (.130 batting average), none of which were home runs. On September 2, he went 0-for-6 while striking out four times; even in his return last night against the Reds, Ohtani went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
With so many ailments to battle through even at the plate, it’s just not feasible for Ohtani to take the mound and aggravate those issues even further. And at this point of the season, the Dodgers would rather have one guaranteed half of Ohtani’s skillset than try to get both and risk losing him entirely if things go sideways.
“I think the thing that I was more focused on was making sure that the pitching wouldn’t cause the worse scenario, which was for me to not be able to play at all,” Ohtani said.
The good news is that the Dodgers already have a loaded rotation led by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal and Blake Snell, with Tyler Glasnow also returning recently. With the depth needed to mitigate the loss of Ohtani in the rotation, it’s much easier for him to concentrate on his hitting.
Even with his injury-fueled slump, Ohtani is hitting .277/.380/.522 with 30 home runs and a 143 wRC+ in 596 plate appearances this season. Getting that production from Ohtani down the stretch will go a long way towards the Dodgers’ quest for a three-peat, regardless if he’s toeing the slab or not.
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