Shohei Ohtani sat out of the lineup for the second night in a row on September 3, and this time it wasn't just a scheduled rest day. The two-way superstar has been dealing with left knee soreness, right bicep discomfort and now neck pain that's been building for weeks, and it finally caught up with him against the Cardinals, when he went 0-for-4 with 4 strikeouts while visibly wincing and shaking out his arm between at-bats.
“Day-to-day” Dave Roberts said of Shohei Ohtani. Roberts said as of right now he still believes an IL stint is unlikely.
Roberts didn't sugarcoat what he saw. Postgame, he told reporters the swing simply wasn't Ohtani's swing, and that he planned to sit down with Ohtani and the training staff about giving him real time off rather than letting him push through it just to keep his consecutive-games streak alive.
Dave Roberts said he’ll have a conversation with Ohtani and the training staff regarding a possible rest day. Would not be surprising to see Ohtani have the day off tomorrow. “I saw the same thing that everyone saw. … Clearly the swings aren’t who he is.” #Dodgers
That's the backdrop for the bigger question hanging over the Dodgers right now: whether Ohtani pitches again in 2026 at all. He hasn't taken the mound in a game since July 3, and the same knee and bicep issues that shut down his throwing program are the ones now affecting his swing. Foul Territory reported the Dodgers haven't ruled out shutting him down from pitching for the rest of the season, even as Roberts insisted no final call has been made.
The Dodgers have not ruled out shutting down Shohei Ohtani from pitching for the remainder of the season, though Dave Roberts says no decision has been made yet.
Ohtani's 2026 return to the mound was supposed to be the story of the year after Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2024 season entirely. He came back in 2025 and looked like himself, running a 2.87 ERA with 62 strikeouts over 14 starts, and this year's follow-up was billed as the 'full version' of a two-way Ohtani built up more aggressively than the cautious, one-inning-at-a-time restart the year before, according to MLB.com. Instead, the knee and bicep have kept derailing the buildup, and since restarting his throwing program in August he's also been scuffling at the plate, batting just.204 with a.704 OPS over that stretch.
Roberts has stuck to calling Ohtani 'day-to-day' and says he still believes an IL stint is unlikely, though he's careful to leave the door open depending on how the next couple of days go.
Dave Roberts told reporters that an IL stint for Shohei Ohtani is "unlikely," though not impossible depending on how he feels over the next couple of days. Ohtani is out of the lineup tonight after reporting bicep and neck discomfort.
GM Brandon Gomes backed that up but was blunt about why the Dodgers are dragging their feet on a 10-day IL stint: they don't want to lose him for that long with the Dodgers sitting atop the NL West and the postseason a month away. Gomes also pushed back on tying Ohtani's recent slump directly to his health, but the team's caution says otherwise.
“I think not having Shohei in the lineup for 10 days or whatever it would be is something that we would prefer not to do,” Brandon Gomes said. “And it really hasn’t even been something that we’ve discussed.” More on how the Dodgers view Ohtani: t.co/gMUmvvd5nf
For now the Dodgers are trying to have it both ways — keep Ohtani's bat in the lineup when they can, protect the arm they still hope gets a handful of starts before October, and avoid an IL stint that would sideline their $700 million man for over a week during a tight playoff push. Whether that balancing act holds probably gets decided over the next few days, not by a press conference.