Shohei Ohtani's Return to Pitching 'Pushed Back' Again After Latest Injury for Dodgers

If Ohtani needs more than three days to recover, a trip to the injured list could be next.

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani (17) looks on during the eighth inning against the Washington Nationals at Dodger Stadium on Sept. 4, 2026. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Los Angeles Dodgers played their best baseball this season when Shohei Ohtani was pitching like a No. 1 starter and hitting like an MVP. It's only been two months since Ohtani last took the mound in a game that counted, but those days feel like a distant memory.

Friday, Ohtani was out of the Dodgers' lineup for the second consecutive game, the result of a combination of injuries that have been dogging him off and on for weeks. Saturday could mark his third consecutive lost game, manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers beat the Washington Nationals in their series opener.

In the meantime, Roberts said Ohtani has stopped throwing plyo balls. That will give his body one less task to check off every day, which could potentially hasten his return to the lineup. Yet it also delays Ohtani's return to the mound.

“Certainly pushes it back,” Roberts said.

Ohtani is 32. The 85.2 innings he threw in the season's first half are the most he's thrown in any season since 2023. Ohtani needed elbow surgery before that season was over, and the Dodgers must be wary of incurring any physical setbacks between now and the end of the postseason.

Not only do they need Ohtani in the lineup to win a third consecutive World Series title, he's under contract for another seven seasons.

Roberts said he is "hopeful" Ohtani can avoid going on the injured list. Given the mounting concerns with his knee, biceps and neck, that's at least three reasons to err on the side of caution.

And the injuries could be related. 

"The anatomy certainly allows those dots to connect," Will Carroll wrote Friday on his Under the Knife Substack page. "The biceps is innervated by the musculocutaneous nerve, with its primary cervical contribution coming from C5 and C6. Irritation or compression of those cervical nerve roots can present farther down the chain as pain, weakness or altered recruitment around the biceps. That doesn’t mean Ohtani has cervical radiculopathy, a herniated disc or anything else specific, but it does mean we shouldn’t automatically assume “biceps” means the problem actually lives in the biceps."

Having time for his whole body to heal could help Ohtani as both a hitter and a pitcher. If he needs more than three days, a trip to the injured list could be next.

Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on X/Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.