Shohei Ohtani’s first full season as a two-way player in three years didn’t end the way he or the Los Angeles Dodgers wanted, as injuries piled up and the Dodgers were swept out of the playoffs. But it sounds like the two-time defending champions are getting some good news on the health front, leading to a pretty significant decision about his future.
On Wednesday, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman announced that Ohtani will not need surgery on his left knee, his right arm, or anything else that bothered him this season. And despite the injury-plagued season, Friedman made it clear that he expects Ohtani to be back on the mound in 2027 as he will continue to be a two-way player.
Ohtani’s Rough Finish
Ohtani was dominant on the mound early in the season, going 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA in his first 14 starts. But pain in his left knee and right biceps kept him from pitching after July 3.
The injuries eventually affected him at the plate, too. Ohtani was slashing .294/.390/.558 with 30 home runs as of Aug. 18, but he finished the regular season with just 11 hits and 29 strikeouts in his last 70 at-bats.
Things didn’t get much better in the playoffs. Ohtani went 4-for-22 with no extra-base hits in his first seven postseason games, and his home run in Game 4 of the NLCS was his first since Aug. 18. But by then, it was too late, as the Milwaukee Brewers completed a sweep to end the Dodgers’ hopes of a three-peat.
“I haven’t been able to really come to grips with what I’ve learned overall this season,” Ohtani said through an interpreter after the loss. “It’s something that I’m going to go back to the drawing board in terms of treatment, training programs and see what I can come up with for next season.”
‘I Fully Expect Him to Pitch’
Speaking at the Dodgers’ end-of-season press conference, Friedman said that doctors only prescribed rest for Ohtani, and that the team expects his 2027 season to be unaffected. He also announced that when Ohtani begins preparing for next season, he will once again train as a two-way player.
“I fully expect him to pitch next year,” Friedman said, via Alden Gonzalez of ESPN.
That said, Friedman admitted that the Dodgers are still figuring out how to manage Ohtani’s workload as both a pitcher and a hitter, which is a unique situation in modern baseball.
“This is unprecedented, what he’s doing,” Friedman said. “So obviously for us it’s unprecedented. We don’t have any experience to draw from. We can’t go look at how other situations have played out to try to learn from the good and the bad.”
“We have to all just figure it out together. And I’m not only expecting him to pitch; we’re excited about him pitching. So now it’s about: How do we do that? How do we manage through a long season and have him at his best going into October? That’s a challenge,” Friedman continued.
Gonzalez suggested that the Dodgers could have Ohtani start pitching later in the season, give him more days off between starts, or do some combination of both.
“I think we’re just going to have to be very deliberate about it on all sides,” Friedman said, “because the value of it is incredible, and therefore it’s incumbent upon all of us to figure out the best way to do it.”
Needless to say, the Dodgers aren’t ready to give up on two-way Ohtani. And after the way this season ended, figuring out how to keep him healthy will be at the top of their offseason to-do list.
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