Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani could be shut down from pitching this season, according to manager Dave Roberts.
Ohtani’s pitching progress stalled after a bullpen session in Detroit didn’t go as planned, and his future is now very much up in the air.
Where is Shohei Ohtani at in his pitching return?
He has not pitched since early July, and he is now three months removed from his last appearance, leaving him far from a full-fledged starting-pitching return.
Instead, Ohtani was going to pitch a few innings at a time, hoping to eventually work his way up to around five or six innings come playoff time.
However, his late-August return was canceled, and now his outlook for the year is in jeopardy.
Roberts said Ohtani not pitching again this season is “on the table,” but the team still isn’t at a point where it has to decide.
The Dodgers still have four more weeks to see how things go, but they will need to pick a focus if they want the best version of Ohtani, no matter the route they take.
Is Shohei Ohtani’s knee affecting his hitting
As for Roberts, he believes his left knee inflammation could affect him.
“I think that, you know, I certainly know the value of him pitching, but if you’re not 100%, there’s possibly some bleed-in to the performance offensively,” Roberts said.
“That’s just me kind of theorizing, but yeah, it’s his decision, honestly, if he feels like he’s capable, and then we’ll run the play out until it doesn’t make any sense.”
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, just a day ago, said that he thinks Ohtani will pitch again this season.
“We will get him in a game at some point,” Friedman said. “When? I don’t know exactly yet.”
With so many questions and not enough time left to fully decide, the next week or two will tell what the team does with its star.
