Dodgers hope Shohei Ohtanis injuries wont derail

There are all the stars in this sequence — Mookie Betts, Matt Olson, Freddie Freeman, Ronald Acuna Jr., Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Chris Sale, Tarik Skubal, Michael Harris II and more — and then there may be the face of baseball around the world.

Major League Baseball wrapped a postseason commercial around the entrance web page of The Times this week. “OCTOBER STARTS TODAY,” the headline screamed.

Beneath those monumental letters, Shohei Ohtani smiled. Who else?

And so dozens of reporters crammed into a cramped room within Dodger Stadium on Friday afternoon, on the eve of the National League Division Series between the Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves, ready for Ohtani to reply a few variations of “How are you?”

It’s not just about attracting informal followers to watch the icon whose face adorns all the things from airplanes to skincare merchandise. For the Dodgers and their followers, it’s about whether or not their most well-known participant will be a game-changer in October.

The Dodgers might have shut him down as a pitcher quite than let him continue to strive to pitch through knee and biceps injuries. They didn’t, and that backfired.

The Dodgers might have shut him down as a hitter, not for the season but for a stint on the injured checklist. They didn’t. They gave him just a few days off, and that backfired.

Then the Dodgers did put him on the injured checklist, but activated him for the ultimate 5 video games of the common season quite than give him prolonged relaxation for the playoffs, limiting his exercise to managed exercises.

That would possibly backfire, or it may not, and the repercussions of the previous might characterize a vital hurdle in their quest for a third consecutive World Series championship. Giving Ohtani time off during the common season would have carried no penalty; the Dodgers would have gained the NL West with or without him.

If the Dodgers determine Ohtani wants a few days off now, they might face this disagreeable dilemma: play one man short, or put him on the injured checklist. Under MLB guidelines, a participant put on the injured checklist during a postseason sequence must sit out the next sequence. So, if Ohtani begins wincing at the end of his swings during the NLDS, a stint on the injured checklist would imply he couldn’t play again until the World Series — if the Dodgers get there.

Ohtani has not hit a home run since Aug. 18. Since then, he’s batting .157, and he has struck out in 41% of his at-bats. In those last 5 video games, he hit the ball exhausting in the first two, then hit ground balls in the ultimate three. In the on-deck circle, he didn’t always take a swing.

In batting follow Friday, he hit heaps of home runs.

The normal sense of how Ohtani is feeling now: good enough.

Ohtani said he feels “really good” as in contrast to before he went on the injured checklist, but acknowledged he isn’t sure what he would possibly need to do to handle the injuries over the winter.

“As of now, it’s something I’m just going to have to manage,” he said through interpreter Will Ireton.

Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts provided this medical update: “Shohei’s not 100%, but he’s going to be in the lineup.”

Same for Freddie Freeman, who has not homered in a month. The distinction, Roberts said, is how inspired the supervisor was by Freeman’s exercises this week.

“With Shohei, I’m not so sure,” Roberts said. “I know that once the lights turn on, the postseason starts, the focus will be heightened. I expect good things. I really do. We just haven’t seen it enough to really — for me to forecast it.”

Ohtani performs when he says he can. After he tore up his left shoulder in Game 2 of the 2024 World Series, he had trainers tape the shoulder in place and took 11 at-bats over the ultimate three video games of the sequence. He had one hit, a single.

“I do pride myself on playing every day,” Ohtani said. “I do see it as an obligation as a professional to be on the field every single day.”

Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, acknowledged not too long ago that communication with Ohtani has been “awesome” but “fully sharing exactly how he’s feeling, maybe not as awesome.”

Said Friedman: “He’s not always the best reporter of how he feels. Freddie’s the same way. Clayton Kershaw. I’ve been around a lot of these guys that feel like their job is to be out there to help the team however they can, and sometimes will downplay some things that are bothering them. But again, it’s because he wants to help the team win.”

The Dodgers are proficient enough that Ohtani not hitting effectively wouldn’t harm their possibilities as a lot as, say, Sale not pitching effectively for the Braves. In the NLDS and the first three video games of the NLCS last October, Ohtani hit .103 with no home runs and struck out in 48% of his at-bats.

In the NLCS clincher, he hit three home runs (and struck out 10 batters). The Dodgers might commerce a few unhealthy days from Ohtani for that one actually good day.

In that MLB commercial, the one that featured Ohtani, the league acknowledged that its screaming headline was not precisely correct. The rationalization also matches the Dodgers’ hopes of Ohtani starring in October.

The advert, after all, appeared on Sept. 29.

October begins today?

“Logic and reason would tell you otherwise,” the advert read. “But October isn’t about being reasonable.

“It’s about belief.”