Shohei Ohtani weighs knee, bicep surgery after Dodgers exit

Game 4 started like the Dodgers might at least make Milwaukee sweat. Ohtani finally got into one, his first homer since August 18, and it put LA up 4-0.

Talkin' Baseball

@TalkinBaseball_

SHOHEI OHTANI MAKES IT 4-0 WITH HIS FIRST HOME RUN SINCE AUGUST 18!

That was the high point. Later that night, with the tying run 90 feet away and the season on the line, the guy everybody wanted at the plate chased a pitch out of the zone and went down on 3 pitches.

Barstool Baseball

@StoolBaseball

Ohtani strikes out on 3 pitches with the tying run at 3rd

The Brewers finished the 4-0 sweep, and the Dodgers' run at a third straight title was over. Then Ohtani said the part that matters more than any one at-bat. Asked about his body after the game, he didn't commit either way on surgery, and he made it clear he isn't done pitching.

Katie Woo

@katiejwoo

Shohei Ohtani said it is “hard to tell” if he’ll need either knee or bicep surgery this offseason. He also said he plans to pitch again next season. #Dodgers

Some context on why that answer is a bigger deal than it sounds. Ohtani hadn't taken the mound since July 3. He tried a rehab ramp in late August, with bullpens and live batting practice, but got shut down before he ever pitched in a game. He played through the left knee and right bicep issues the rest of the way, and you could see it in the box scores. A homer drought that runs from August 18 to the middle of October is not normal for him.

So the Dodgers spent all season talking about protecting Ohtani's health for October, then got to October with a hitter who looked banged up and a pitcher who wasn't available. By Friday afternoon the postmortems had started, and the question everybody kept circling was whether the two-way thing is still worth it.

Foul Territory

@FoulTerritoryTV

"The guy still has an electric arm." @IamTrevorMay believes there's still runway for Shohei Ohtani to pitch...

Trevor May is in the keep-pitching camp, and it's hard to argue with the stuff. When Ohtani's healthy, he's one of the nastiest arms in the sport. The problem is that "when healthy" is carrying a lot of weight in that sentence, and Fabian Ardaya says the Dodgers need to rethink how much they load onto him.

Foul Territory

@FoulTerritoryTV

The Dodgers will likely need to re-evaluate how they manage Shohei Ohtani's two-way workload, says @FabianArdaya. "Do you treat it like 2025 again?"

That's the real offseason storyline in LA. If Ohtani needs a procedure on the knee, the bicep, or both, that decides when he can start building up for 2027, and it decides whether the Dodgers go back to a careful 2025-style ramp or let him loose. He says he's pitching. The Dodgers have to figure out how much, and when he does go under the knife, nobody's going to care about the strikeout anymore.