The two-way experiment just hit a real speed bump. Jon Heyman broke the news Sunday that Ohtani is taking a break from pitching, and by Monday it was confirmed: the reigning MVP is scratched from his scheduled Wednesday start and the Dodgers are keeping him off the mound for the foreseeable future because of lingering left knee soreness.
Big Dodger news: Ohtani taking a break from pitching for now
This isn't a sudden collapse, it's the tail end of a slow burn. Ohtani had his knee drained during the All-Star break, which is why he sat out the Midsummer Classic, and reporting indicates the discomfort resurfaced when he tried to play catch and throw off flat ground last week. Manager Dave Roberts has been blunt about the tradeoff: the torque of landing on that leg on a pitch aggravates the knee, but hitting doesn't bother it at all, which is exactly why the Dodgers are comfortable running him out there as the DH every night while shutting the mound work down completely.
Shohei Ohtani will keep DH'ing, but the #Dodgers are keeping the superstar off the mound "for some time" due to Ohtani's lingering knee soreness. t.co/mDwM7UNRjW
The stakes here go well beyond one missed turn in the rotation. Ohtani is having another monster offensive season, and this knee situation instantly scrambles his Cy Young case, muddies his MVP argument against a stacked NL field, and torches whatever pitching prop bets were built around him for the rest of the summer. It also puts real pressure on the Dodgers' pitching depth, since the front office built this roster around a two-way superstar eating regular starts, not a six-man rotation trying to plug a hole with bullpen games and spot starters.
Fair Territory! *Ohtani implications on LAD, Cy, MVP races *BOS, BAL surges *NYM/Lindor *CIN as a seller *WAS/Luis Garcia Jr. *NYY at deadline *CHC, MIL needs YouTube: t.co/shwIOu1Ok9 Apple: t.co/avhGxYGIUH Spotify: t.co/LoM57DYMyw
That shifts even more weight onto Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who's already been the steadiest arm in that Dodgers rotation and now becomes the clear top-of-the-rotation guy while Ohtani is limited to hitting. The clip of Yamamoto's pitch execution making the rounds this week is a reminder of why the Dodgers can lean on him without blinking.
One pitch from Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The plan. The conviction. The execution.
Roberts hasn't given a firm return date, and he's said this isn't going to be a day-to-day update situation, just steady progress until the knee settles down. The Dodgers still expect Ohtani to pitch again in 2026, but until then it's DH-only, a rotation running without a true No. 6, and a whole lot of watching to see how quickly the swelling and soreness actually clear up.