Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani is not in the starting lineup on getaway day against the Rockies on Thursday afternoon, which was by design. It’s the first time Ohtani hasn’t started a game for which he was active this season. Catcher Will Smith gets the start at designated hitter on Thursday, his first time at the […]
Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani is not in the starting lineup on getaway day against the Rockies on Thursday afternoon, which was by design. It’s the first time Ohtani hasn’t started a game for which he was active this season.
Catcher Will Smith gets the start at designated hitter on Thursday, his first time at the position this season.
The off day was planned beforeOhtani took a line drive off his right leg in Wednesday’s loss in Colorado. Ohtani was struck by an Orlando Arcia single in the fourth inning, and stayed in the game to face three more batters to finish out the inning, and batted once more as the designated hitter as well.
Ohtani also missed two games on April 18-19 when the Dodgers were in Texas to play the Rangers. But those weren’t days off in the traditional sense, as he was on paternity leave for the birth of his daughter. Ohtani also started 159 games last year, including every game from May 29 through the end of the regular season, then started all 16 postseason games, including the final three games of the World Series after dislocating his left shoulder.
Last year was different though, as Ohtani did not pitch, after his September 2023 elbow surgery. This year he’s back as a full-fledged two-way player, and is now stretched out to nearly a normal starter’s length on the mound.
Ohtani’s return to the mound has been gradual, including building up his innings while in the majors. As a two-way player, his pitching presence does not count as the roster limit of 13 pitchers, so he’s essentially an extra arm. So even while his early starts were only one or two innings, those were innings he pitched were innings the rest of a busy staff didn’t have to pitch.
That Ohtani was essentially continuing his rehab while in the majors was unorthodox, but made sense for a few reasons. For one, his stuff looked great and results were very good until his last two starts — in all, he has a 4.61 ERA and 30.1-percent strikeout rate in 27 1/3 innings to date — but also having to pitch in simulated games hours before hitting in real games was a daunting task.
“We got to the point where it feels like we should take that next step, and almost finish the rehab at the major league level, because of the taxing nature of what he was doing,” general manager Brandon Gomes said on June 16, the day of Ohtani’s first mound appearance for the Dodgers. “So much of it the getting hot, throwing a live (batting practice) at 1:30, two o’clock, cooling down, then coming back and getting ready to lead off a game. I can’t even imagine how taxing that is.”
Ohtani was quite durable during his last three years with the Angels. There were occasional days off, but not too many:
2021: started 145 of 152 games (excluding games with no DH, in NL parks)
2022: started 153 of 162 games
2023: started 135 of 137 games before elbow surgery in September
Eight of those 18 off days came the day after Ohtani started on the mound. The Dodgers had a recent string of Thursday off days, and they lined up Ohtani’s previous three pitching starts on Wednesdays so that he’d get the off day at the most beneficial time (and because the rest of the starting rotation was solidifying).
The Dodgers had an off day the day after four of Ohtani’s first nine pitching starts. But in the five games Ohtani played the next day after pitching, he was 2 for 20 with a home run, three runs scored, two RBI, two walks, and eight strikeouts. Take that sample with however grains of salt you deem appropriate.
To give an idea of the impact of Ohtani as a two-way player, he’s tied for the major league lead with 576 plate appearances as a hitter through Wednesday. But he’s also faced 116 batters as a hitter. The essence of baseball comes down to the batter-pitcher matchup, and Ohtani this season has been involved in roughly 20 percent more of them than any other player in baseball.
It was similar during his final three seasons in Anaheim, only heightened because he was a stretched-out starter for longer periods of time:
2021: 1,172 total PA (61.8 percent more than No. 2 Marcus Semien’s 724 PA)
2022: 1,326 total PA (83.1 percent more than Semien’s 724 PA)
2023*: 1,130 total PA (50 percent more than Semien’s 753 PA)
*that’s with Ohtani missing the final four weeks of the season
Thursday is also the exact middle point for the Dodgers’ current stretch, day seven of 13 straight game days in a row, which makes it an even more logical time for Ohtani to get a day off, at least from starting.
Hitting is a full-time job, but so is pitching. Sometimes an off day is needed, especially after taking a line drive off the leg.
Category: General Sports
