{"id":890522,"date":"2026-09-10T13:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T13:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/890522\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T13:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T13:20:10","slug":"ohtani-heads-to-il-dodgers-calling-up-top-prospect-de-paula-to-play-dh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/890522\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohtani heads to IL; Dodgers calling up top prospect De Paula to play DH"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, who has sat out six of the past seven games because of discomfort in his right arm, is going on the injured list, Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> manager Dave Roberts told reporters after Wednesday night\u2019s 14-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are also calling up Josue De Paula, one of baseball\u2019s best outfield prospects, from Double-A to temporarily take his place at designated hitter, Roberts said.<\/p>\n

As a two-way player, Ohtani must go on the 15-day injured list, which means that, when backdated to his last appearance on Monday, the soonest he can return is Sept. 23. That would give Ohtani a maximum of five regular-season games to get ready for the playoffs.<\/p>\n

De Paula, 21, will join the team Friday for the start of a seven-game trip through Miami and Cincinnati and is expected to get most of the playing time vacated by Ohtani over the next 11 games.\u00a0He was rated the 10th-best prospect in ESPN\u2019s updated rankings last month and has been tearing it up in Double-A, slashing .303\/.401\/.547 with 27 home runs and 31 stolen bases in 124 games.<\/p>\n

Roberts said putting Ohtani on the IL was \u201cthe right thing to do,\u201d adding, \u201cWe tried to kick the can as much as we could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked his confidence that Ohtani will be in a good place when he gets back, Roberts said: \u201cVery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it were a postseason game tomorrow, he would be in the lineup,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cNow you\u2019re talking about two weeks, 14 days. I feel that it\u2019s that substantial. He\u2019ll be in a much better place than he was today. Is it going to be 100%? Probably not. But I do think, with this time that we\u2019re taking now, he\u2019ll be in an adequate spot to finish the season and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Paula, who was signed out of the Dominican Republic for slightly less than $400,000 in 2022, breezed past the Dominican Summer League and both levels of A-ball in his first four years in the organization, ultimately becoming the Dodgers\u2019 consensus top prospect. The Dodgers refused to include him in trade talks for Tarik Skubal<\/a> this summer, seeing him as an impact player in their lineup in the near future. And though he is in Double-A, evaluators believe his bat is major league ready right now.<\/p>\n

Ohtani, in some ways, is not.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers\u2019 two-way star has not pitched since July 3 because of continuing soreness in his left knee, which manifested again when he tried to throw a bullpen session on Aug. 28. Ohtani acknowledged Monday that he would \u201cmost likely\u201d not pitch again this season. But lately, it\u2019s his offense that has been a concern.<\/p>\n

It began last Wednesday, when Ohtani shook his right arm as he retreated to the dugout after a 10th-inning strikeout. Ohtani was out of the lineup the following day, marking his first absence since July 30. The hope was that he would return shortly thereafter, but he also sat out games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

He returned Monday, went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts, and took another day off Tuesday. The plan was for him to return Wednesday, but Roberts said Ohtani complained of pain in his right arm during one of his swings Monday, prompting the team to think more seriously about putting him on the IL.<\/p>\n

Ohtani has a .902 OPS with 30 home runs and 11 stolen bases this season, but he has compiled only seven hits and 22 strikeouts over his past 54 at-bats. He\u2019ll take the next few days off to reset his body, then start hitting again to build up for the final days of the regular season.<\/p>\n

Roberts told reporters Wednesday night that he believed this would allow the team to \u201cget the best of him for the postseason.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani, who has sat out six of the past seven games because of discomfort in his right…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,90907,462,104575,82],"class_list":["post-890522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-los-angeles-dodgers-sports-baseball-team-team-statscom-243","tag-mlb","tag-shohei-ohtani-sports-baseball-player-player-statscom-727378","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}