Shohei Ohtani to Be Out of Dodgers Lineup for Final 2 Games vs Giants

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani will be a one-way player on Wednesday.

On Thursday, he'll be a benchwarmer.

For the fourth time in seven pitching starts, the Dodgers will have Ohtani only pitch on Wednesday night against the San Francisco Giants.

However, for the first time all season, Ohtani will not play at all on Thursday, barring a potential late-game pinch-hit opportunity.

“I think it’s just more of, kind of thinking that it might just be a good thing to take a little bit of a load off his plate offensively,” Roberts said before Tuesday's game. “Letting his body recover a little bit, as far as [not] being a two-way player for a couple days. Playing more of the longer view, potentially giving him a reset on the offensive side.”

Manager Dave Roberts made the decision before Tuesday's game, in which Ohtani seemed to finally break out of his offensive slump with two hits, including his first home run since April 26. Despite Ohtani's 2-for-4 night, Roberts is sticking with his original plan.

"You just can't be reactive over one game. You really can't," Roberts said. "I've talked about the workload and I've talked to him at length about it. It's tough on days he pitches. I don't think it's fair to the player just to assume [that] he threw out a couple knocks so he should be in there tomorrow. I don't like playing that game."

Shohei Ohtani is starting to look like himself again.

He hit a single in his first at-bat. He then hit a home run in his second at-bat — his seventh of the year.

Ohtani hit it 105.9 mph to the opposite field. That is an incredible sign for the Dodgers.pic.twitter.com/orCcqhsElN
— Noah Camras (@noahcamras) May 13, 2026

Even with Ohtani's breakthrough on Tuesday night, he's having arguably the worst offensive season of his career thus far in 2026.

Through 38 games, the four-time MVP is slashing .240/.370/.427 with seven home runs, 17 RBIs and an OPS of .797.

His lowest end-of-season OPS in a full year (not including the shortened 2020 season) is .845. He's finished with an OPS above 1.000 in each of the last three seasons.

“I think the fatigue [of his two-way workload] is bleeding into the [hitting] mechanics,” Roberts said. “I think that most players get that towards the end of the summer. And now I’m learning, managing Shohei, it has probably shown itself a little earlier, as far as the tax on pitching and all that comes with it to the hitting too.”

This is Ohtani's first full season as a two-way player since 2023, his final year with the Los Angeles Angels.

In 2024, his first year with the Dodgers, Ohtani only hit. Last year, he didn't start pitching until June — starting with just one inning outings — and only completed a total of 47 regular season innings.

While Ohtani has previously said the full pitching workload isn't affecting his offense, the numbers tell a different story.

So, Roberts will try to limit Ohtani's workload as best as he can for the final two games of the series against the Giants. That means him only pitching on Wednesday, and then riding the bench on Thursday.

“He’s always gonna want to do more. He always has that sense of responsibility to his teammates, that he wants to be out there both ways,” Roberts said. “So I’ve learned that I have to be proactive and take it out of his hands, like most great players.”

Wednesday and Thursday will mark the first time since 2021 that Ohtani will be out of his team's lineup as a hitter for consecutive days (not including when he's been on the injured or paternity lists). At that time, he was out of the Angels' lineup when they played the National League before there was a universal designated hitter.

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