Dodgers Shut Down Shohei Ohtani From Pitching, He Will Continue To Hit
The Dodgers have told Shohei Ohtani to stop pitching indefinitely because of inflammation in his left knee. He will continue to hit. (Photo by Ross Turteltaub/Getty Images)
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NEW YORK – The two-way career of Shohei Ohtani as a pitcher and hitter is stalled indefinitely. The Dodgers have decided to shelve Ohtani as a pitcher for the foreseeable future because of a left knee injury.
The Dodgers have other starters coming: Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow on the road to recovery from their own injuries. Having Ohtani on the mound right now “is not a necessity,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Sunday.
“We want to have him back by the postseason, definitely,” Roberts said. “That’s the game plan. So, we’re not going to rush him. That’s for sure.”
Still Ohtani just keeps on hitting. He had a double, single and two RBIs as the Dodgers shellacked the Yankees, 8-2, in the first game of a split day-night doubleheader at Yankee Stadium. Going into the night cap, Ohtani was hitting .291 with 22 homers, 58 RBIs, and a .944 OPS.
Again, National League MVP numbers. He continues to hit well even when he’s not pitching.
“That’s the amazing thing about him,” Roberts said. “Truly amazing.”
Ohtani had been scheduled to start on the mound Wednesday for the Dodgers in Philadelphia, but that obviously won’t happen. He needs more time to let the inflammation settle.
“Where we’re at right now, how we’re proceeding, I would say that it’s going to be some time,” Roberts said. “I’d say that it’s not going to be a day-to-day thing.”
Ohtani had an injection in the knee during the All-Star break to try and eliminate that inflammation. The hope was that with that and backing him up to the end of the rotation, he might be in a proper place to pitch again. But Ohtani still felt pain in the knee this weekend while having a catch and that led to this decision.
“Honestly, a lot of it is where we’re at and how we’ve put ourselves in a good spot,” Roberts said. “Could he probably [pitch]? Sure. But right now, the benefits just [don’t] seem to outweigh the cost at this time of the season. So, I think we still have plenty of time to get him to a good spot to then pitch.”
Ohtani Has Been A Unicorn As A Pro Player
Ohtani, a right-handed pitcher and lefty-swinging hitter, injured the knee during a pitching start June 11 in Pittsburgh. Subsequently, he continued to suffer the discomfort while pitching, not hitting. He made his successive starts trying to adjust the way he landed on his left (front) leg after delivering a pitch, Roberts explained.
“Just landing and the torque from pitching,” Roberts said. “He doesn’t have that problem when he’s running.”
Ohtani was scratched from his final pitching start on July 10 right before the break and didn’t play in last week’s All-Star Game despite being elected overwhelmingly by the fans.
Prior to the injury, Ohtani was vying for his first NL Cy Young Award along with his fourth consecutive league MVP. On the mound, he’s 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA and 85 strikeouts in 85 2/3 innings over 14 starts. To put that all into perspective, the Dodgers team ERA is 3.50, third in the Major Leagues, almost two runs higher than Ohtani.
And that’s with Yoshinobu Yamamoto also vying for the Cy Young. He’s 10-6 with a 2.78 ERA after pitching a rare complete game against the Yankees in Sunday’s opener, allowing two runs on four hits. It was the first regular season complete game of his career, although he had one each in the NL Championship Series and World Series last year.
“He’s pitched well in these situations,” Roberts said. “He likes these big games.”
Ohtani May Not Win The NL Cy Young Award
The chance of Ohtani winning the Cy Young now are greatly diminished, but he still will be the favorite to haul in his third MVP trophy since signing a 10-year, $700 million contract in 2023 with the Dodgers as a free agent. Ohtani’s first MVP came in his final of six seasons playing for the Angels.
Ohtani won the MVP in his first season with the Dodgers when he hit only recovering from his second Tommy John-type ligament replacement surgery. During the 2024 season he became the first Major League player to record a 50/50 season with 54 homers and 59 stolen bases.
Ohtani spent much of the early part of the 2025 season rehabbing from the surgery so he could pitch again. There were questions even then whether it was wise for him to do so. All-time home run leader Barry Bonds wondered openly about that viability.
“If you’re DH-ing and doing what you’re doing, why fix something that ain’t broken?” Bonds said at the time. “Pitching again? That’s a lot of concentration. He might get hurt again. They’re asking a lot.”
Ohtani ultimately returned to the mound on June 16, 2025, and threw an inning. He built up to six innings in his final of 11 regular season starts and was ready for a historic postseason.
On Oct. 17 in an NLCS Game 4 sweep of the Brewers, Ohtani hit three homers in his first three at bats and on the mound pitched into the seventh inning allowing no runs on two hits while striking out 10.
That had never happened before in a postseason game.
This season, Ohtani just kept rolling. He built a 31-inning scoreless streak that bridged the end of 2025 until this past April 15. Through his first eight starts he had an ERA of 0.79 and the talk about him adding the Cy to the MVP began.
Now as Bond predicted, Ohtani is hurt again. The big question is not the Cy, but when and if Ohtani will pitch. Roberts said even he’s not sure.
“I don’t know how long this is going to last,” he said. “Really.”
