Two-way star Shohei Ohtani had a fragile end to the season, both at the plate and on (or rather off) the mound. He hit just .160/.284/.253 with a 58 wRC+ in 88 plate appearances starting August 18th. An injury to his left knee has kept him from throwing since early July, and inflammation in his right biceps later developed, forcing him on the 15-day IL in September. With the Dodgers now eliminated from the playoffs, the focus will be on Ohtani’s health for 2027, and the 32-year-old tells Katie Woo of The Athletic that it’s “hard to say” whether he will need knee or biceps surgery this offseason. Regardless, he plans to pitch next season.
This is absolutely not surprising given Ohtani’s continued dominance on the mound when healthy. He started 14 games this year and held opponents to a 1.79 ERA in 85 2/3 innings, posting a 27.9% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate and 51.2% ground ball rate. The strikeout and walk metrics in particular were well above average. FanGraphs rated his pitching contributions at 2.9 wins above replacement, placing Ohtani in the top 20% of all pitchers with at least 80 innings. Almost everyone in front of him threw 60 to 100 extra innings.
As expected, Ohtani also dominated at the plate, even including the mid-August drop. He hit .275/.377/.512 overall with 30 homers and tied for fifth in the senior circuit with a 139 wRC+. He was worth 3.7 fWAR for his hitting and 6.6 fWAR when you factor in his pitching. That won’t be enough to win the National League MVP, as that honor likely belongs to Pete Crow Armstrong. Nonetheless, Ohtani was unquestionably still one of the top 10 players in the game.
Unfortunately, Ohtani’s playoff performance was a continuation of his late-season slide. He came to the plate 32 times between the Division and Championship Series and was 5-for-26 with ten strikeouts. Ohtani’s only extra-base hit was a three-run homer yesterday that gave the Dodgers a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the second. He struck out his other three at-bats. The fact that the four-time MVP wasn’t at full strength didn’t help the team’s playoff performance. LA finished with a 63 wRC+ over the two rounds.
Any serious injury to Ohtani has a double impact for the Dodgers, let alone two of them. A portion of the fan base might insist that he should eventually give up pitching to focus on hitting. It could happen one day, but there’s virtually no chance of it happening while Ohtani is still in the first half of his contract in Los Angeles.
For their part, the Dodgers have always kept a close eye on Ohtani’s workload and are fully aware of the challenges of keeping a two-way player healthy. As President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman said before the playoffs: “What he is doing is unprecedented and it is very expensive. This is unprecedented for all of us, and we’re kind of trying to get through this together.» (link via Woo).
For now, the Dodgers will continue to monitor Ohtani’s health. If surgery is necessary, they will do everything possible to ensure it does not interfere with Ohtani’s preparation for 2027. Regardless, the Dodgers posted a 111 wRC+ during the regular season (second best in the Majors) and would be able to withstand an absence. Besides Ohtani, Los Angeles’ five other qualifying hitters were average or better based on wRC+ this year. They will all be back in 2027. The rotation, which could see Tarik Skubal leaving in free agency, could arguably use Ohtani more. Tyler Glasnow And Blake Snell were both efficient on a rate basis, but combined for just 116 2/3 regular season innings. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was the Dodgers’ only qualified starter.
Photo courtesy of Kirby Lee, Imagn Images
Gn sports
