{"id":498012,"date":"2026-10-16T11:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T11:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/498012\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T11:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T11:32:13","slug":"dodgers-must-get-better-at-keeping-shohei-ohtani-healthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/498012\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers must get better at keeping Shohei Ohtani healthy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two things can be true: The Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 season ended prematurely and, for Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, the offseason couldn\u2019t come soon enough.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s elimination \u2014 a no-doubt-about-it sweep at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers<\/a>, who vanquished the Dodgers in the same fashion Ohtani and Co. had summarily eliminated them last season \u2014 was apparently the only way to get the two-way superstar out of the lineup.<\/p>\n

Now he can get some much-needed rest and recovery, a reality check and, possibly, some surgical procedures to repair the knee and biceps injuries that plagued him this season.<\/p>\n

Ohtani didn\u2019t rule anything out in his postgame scrum, several rows deep, in front of his locker after the Dodgers\u2019 6-4 defeat<\/a> in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cHard to tell at this point,\u201d the 32-year-old Ohtani said in Japanese, via interpreter Will Ireton. \u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s going to be analyzed, discussed over the offseason, and see if that\u2019s a viable thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopefully, for the Dodgers\u2019 sake and for baseball\u2019s, Ohtani and his team will see their way to a reasonable load management plan. Hopefully they\u2019ll find a viable injury management strategy.<\/p>\n

Especially if he continues to pitch, as Ohtani said he plans to: \u201cYes, definitely, and looking forward to having a better season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopefully this bumpy season \u2014 his first as a Dodger to end short of the championship following the 2024 and 2025 title runs \u2014 will make Ohtani better. Wiser. More willing to listen to his body and to communicate what it\u2019s telling him with the ball club that relies on him so much.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll always trust Shohei,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts<\/a> said. \u201cHe\u2019s the best player on the planet, and he\u2019s not completely healthy. But I just give him a lot of respect for not running from it, still wanting to participate, still wanting to play when he\u2019s not 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

But hopefully when Ohtani\u2019s knee barks next time, he won\u2019t pitch through it. Hopefully when his right arm tightens up, he\u2019ll step out of the box. Even \u2014 or especially \u2014 if it takes longer than a 15-day IL stint to make him right.<\/p>\n

Hopefully he\u2019s learned that irrespective of a sense of duty or pride or a selfish streak, the cold-hitting fact is that a compromised version of Ohtani leaves the Dodgers\u2019 whole team \u2014 a $400 million investment \u2014 compromised, as it was this postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really want to take it for granted for the opportunity to be able to play with these guys,\u201d Ohtani said. \u201cBut honestly, I think I\u2019m just very disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In eight playoff games against the Atlanta Braves and Brewers, Ohtani hit .192 (five for 26). He struck out 10 times. He didn\u2019t get an extra-base hit or drive in a run until Thursday, in the season finale, which reminded us of Ohtani\u2019s power \u2014 he walloped his first home run since Aug. 18, a three-run missile in the second inning that traveled 428 feet \u2014 and his pain.<\/p>\n

Roberts looked, for a moment, like a genius for continuing to keep Ohtani in the lineup \u2014 and to pencil him in as the Dodgers\u2019 leadoff hitter after batting him sixth on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

For that one shining moment.<\/p>\n

\"Shohei <\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run in the second inning of the Dodgers\u2019 6-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 4 of the NLCS on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

But Ohtani also struck out three times Thursday \u2014 made to look foolish in a much-too-familiar way.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers needed a healthy Ohtani to deal with a young, hungry ballclub like the Brewers.<\/p>\n

To have a chance against a team that was, as Dodgers utility man Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> said, \u201calmost playing perfect baseball,\u201d they needed him dialed in and not tinkering, not staying late searching.<\/p>\n

They need the version of him that delivered the perfect game a year ago, his three-home-run, 10-strikeout masterpiece<\/a> that sent Milwaukee home in Game 4 of the NLCS.<\/p>\n

\u201cOhtani is arguably the best player in the world,\u201d Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s proven that to us. He had the greatest game I\u2019ve ever seen played by an individual player last year against us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers need that guy striking fear into opponents. Not him striking out, or getting stranded helplessly on base.<\/p>\n

\"Shohei <\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani tosses his bat after hitting a three-run home run against the Milwaukee Brewers during the Dodgers\u2019 6-4 loss in Game 4 of the NLCS on Thursday at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

And they got a glimpse of that guy Thursday with that second-inning home run, a shot that had him throwing his arms up and screaming toward his dugout, as emotive as we\u2019ve seen him, relieved and exulting after giving the Dodgers a 4-0 lead<\/a> \u2014 and a fleeting expectation that they\u2019d play a Game 5 on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of pent-up anger, frustration,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIt was the best ball he hit in probably two, three months, and it was a big hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like,\u201d Max Muncy<\/a> said, \u201cthat\u2019s the swing we\u2019ve been waiting for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now we all wait for baseball to return \u2014 and then to learn what this season taught Ohtani, one of the most unique athletes in the history of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot quite satisfied with how things shaped up on the pitching side at the end of the year,\u201d Ohtani said. \u201c… I haven\u2019t been able to really come to grips in terms of what I\u2019ve learned overall. It\u2019s something that I\u2019m going to kind of go back to the drawing board in terms of treatment, training program, and see what I can come up with for next season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two things can be true: The Dodgers\u2019 season ended prematurely and, for Shohei Ohtani, the offseason couldn\u2019t come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2135,2136,3560,426,96605,423,6135,48,52,51,47,50,49,10250,424,278,422,427,4610,2429,77018],"class_list":["post-498012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-baseball","tag-brewer","tag-dodger","tag-dodgers","tag-first-home-run","tag-game","tag-guy","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-ohtani","tag-roberts","tag-season","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-team","tag-thing","tag-thursday","tag-version"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}