How Dodgers handled Shohei Ohtanis injuries

When it comes to Shohei Ohtani‘s injury management, it’s tempting to dwell on the what-ifs.

What if the Dodgers pressured him to give up pitching in July, when he needed a lubricant injection to alleviate irritation in his left knee?

It was clear by then that Ohtani was taking part in through a number of injuries. A proper biceps drawback popped up for the second time on July 3 — the last time he pitched in a sport. The Dodgers said his knee inflammation was only aggravated by pitching and the biceps tightness was tied to hitting. And yet, they had been assured that the MLB All-Star break would give Ohtani enough time to bounce back.

If the Dodgers had been more proactive, instead of beginning and stopping Ohtani’s throwing program until his injuries pressured a shutdown, would he be in the lineup Friday against the Miami Marlins instead of on the 15-day injured record?

Maybe.

Or perhaps the injuries had been vital enough that they might have affected him down the stretch regardless. Maybe seeing if he may return to the mound was definitely worth the risk.

Maybe not.

“Anyone can do that and say, ‘What could you have done better or different?’” supervisor Dave Roberts said this week when requested if he had any regrets about Ohtani’s injury management. “That’s something going forward we’re going to look at, absolutely. But, it’s certainly not a blame-game thing. It’s learning from what happened and getting better.”

Parsing the potential outcomes of choices made months in the past may take time. But the fallout from this past week is clearer.

What if instead of resting Ohtani 4 days and bringing him back Monday, the Dodgers had put him on the IL last week?

“If we look right now, here today, I would love to go back and put him on the IL,” Roberts said. “But at that moment in time, we all felt that giving him four days was sufficient. He was agreeable. Getting him out there on Monday with the hope that he would be able to play [again Wednesday]. But where we’re at right now, sure.”

Two weeks without Ohtani is difficult to swallow. He’d never been on the injured record with the Dodgers. As a two-way participant, he’s eligible for the 15-day IL instead of the 10-day for place gamers.

The Dodgers tried to keep away from it. But when he returned to the lineup Monday, he “didn’t feel great” on a swing, Roberts revealed.

So now the Dodgers can only backdate Ohtani’s IL stint to Tuesday, somewhat than Sept. 3. At minimal, Ohtani shall be out until the ultimate 5 video games of the common season.

“The most important thing is him being as healthy as possible, not compromising his swing, and kind of bet on that,” Roberts said.

He acknowledged that Ohtani wouldn’t be back to “100%” even with two weeks off.

But loads of gamers push through injuries in the playoffs. October turns into a take a look at of pain tolerance before addressing illnesses in the offseason.

“I want to make sure that when I look back [on] this season,” Ohtani said Monday through interpreter Will Ireton, “that I used this as an experience, a learning experience and make sure that I use that as something to improve upon for next season.”

So, does that imply Ohtani looks like he could possibly be more up-front with the group about his health, regardless of whether or not he thinks he can play through aches and pains?

“It’s hard to say now with the season still going on,” Ohtani said. “It’s something that I’m going to reflect back on during the offseason. I’m just making sure that I’m focusing on the now and finishing strong.”

The Dodgers, for the first time navigating what was anticipated to be a full season of two-way play from Ohtani, leaned on his experience while managing his workload. In retrospect, they may have put an excessive amount of stock in his self-evaluations.

Baseball has a long custom of gamers downplaying injuries, out of a need to play and a perception in their own perseverance.

“What can I learn?” Roberts said this week. “I think that sometimes, potentially trying to get ahead of managing his workload — it always feels good to run him out there offensively as a DH. Always feels good when you pencil him in as a starter — for me, it’s just really trying to be mindful of the long season.

“And I guess it’s under the thing of, ‘you don’t know until you know,’ and it’s important to learn from experiences. And I think it’s good for all of us to kind of appreciate that he’s not supernatural, as much as we think he might be at times.”

Roberts said he didn’t study until Tuesday night time, after giving Ohtani a break day for the fifth time in six video games, that a swing on Monday had bothered him.

So, Ohtani didn’t return to the lineup Wednesday as deliberate. And the Dodgers organized for No. 1 prospect Josue De Paula to meet the group in Miami, called up straight from double A for his MLB debut on Friday.

“It was more just really huddling up and saying, ‘Hey, how are you going to feel on Friday? How are you going to feel on Saturday, talking to the doctors and training staff?’” Roberts said. “There was not much certainty that he’d be in a much better place. With that, just taking it off the table seemed like the best course of action.”

De Paula wasn’t in any other case assured to debut this season, although the Dodgers would have needed to ultimately put him on the 40-man roster to shield him from the Rule 5 draft.

The Dodgers see him as a major league-ready hitter, but he still has work to do on protection for the group to really feel snug taking part in him in the outfield often. An early style of the big leagues, even with his taking part in time anticipated to come principally at DH, could possibly be useful for the 21-year-old’s development.

For Ohtani, the ramp from the IL to postseason play shall be short. But his latest offensive struggles emphasised the significance of having a more healthy model of him in the lineup come October.

If anybody could make it work, it’s Ohtani. He will not be supernatural, but he also isn’t just any participant. And if he performs in the postseason, that will drown out any lingering what-ifs.

Times workers author Kevin Baxter contributed to this report.