• Ohtani’s lingering knee and arm issues are starting to show at the plate
• His pitching comeback keeps getting slowed by soreness and setbacks
• The Dodgers are dealing with a flat offense during a rough stretch
• Dave Roberts is now openly weighing rest, the injured list, and shutting down pitching
• October matters, and the team cannot live with a limited version of Ohtani
At Dodger Stadium, the warning signs around Shohei Ohtani are getting harder to ignore. The star slugger has been battling a sore left knee and a nagging right biceps issue for months, and the effects are starting to spill over into his offense in a way the Dodgers can no longer brush aside. What once sounded like routine maintenance now looks a lot more serious, especially after another rough night at the plate.
Ohtani’s struggles have lined up with a broader slide for Los Angeles. He has been working his way back toward pitching, but the process keeps getting interrupted, and every delay seems to leave him a little less sharp as a hitter. The Dodgers have insisted all along that the two-way workload was not hurting him offensively, but the recent numbers tell a different story.
Since he threw his first bullpen session in more than three weeks on Aug. 14, Ohtani has hit .194 with a .719 OPS over 17 games. He is also stuck in his longest homer drought since joining the Dodgers, a stretch that has now reached 12 games. That is not the kind of production anyone expects from a four-time MVP, and it has become even tougher to overlook because his swings are beginning to look compromised.
Dave Roberts finally said what the box score already suggested. After a long pause, the Dodgers manager admitted that there could be some connection between Ohtani’s physical condition and the dip in his offense. He did not pretend to have a perfect answer, but he made it clear that the issue is real enough to deserve attention. The message was simple: if Ohtani is not close to full strength, the bat may suffer too.
That concern grew louder Wednesday night. Ohtani went 0-for-4, struck out four times, and looked visibly uncomfortable in his final at-bat, wincing and shaking out his right arm. It was a frustrating night for a player who usually looks dangerous even when he is merely breathing at the plate, and it came during a game that ended in another Dodgers loss. The team has now dropped six of its last eight, which only adds more pressure to figure this out quickly.
The bigger picture is just as rough. Since the start of July, Los Angeles is 26-27 and sitting in the bottom half of the league in several important offensive categories. Over that span, the Dodgers rank 21st in OPS, 24th in slugging, and 26th in home runs. That kind of production leaves little room for a superstar who is clearly less than whole, especially when the lineup around him is already stumbling.
Roberts has been careful not to slam the door on Ohtani pitching again, but the tone is shifting. He acknowledged that the team may need to take a harder look at whether the value of a few innings on the mound is worth the cost at the plate. With Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow all healthy, the Dodgers have plenty of pitching options, and that makes the case for protecting Ohtani even stronger.
There is also the simple reality that Ohtani does not like to sit. He has avoided the injured list since arriving in Los Angeles, and even personal time away has been rare. The Dodgers know that about him, and Roberts said as much when discussing how badly Ohtani wants to stay in the lineup. Still, wanting to play and actually helping the team are not always the same thing.
That is why the next conversation matters so much. Roberts said he plans to talk with Ohtani and the training staff before Thursday’s game, and a short breather may be on the table. He also left open the possibility that the Dodgers could shut down his pitching for the rest of the season, a move that would have seemed far more dramatic a few months ago. Now it feels less like a shock and more like a common-sense step.
The Dodgers do not need a half-speed version of Ohtani trying to juggle everything while the season tightens. They need the best possible hitter they can get, and right now that means cutting back on the extra burden, not adding to it. October is still ahead, but if Ohtani keeps fighting through pain like this, the Dodgers may find themselves running out of time to get him right.
