The Los Angeles Dodgers officially put Shohei Ohtani on the 15-day injured list before Friday’s game against the Miami Marlins. Josue De Paula was called up from Double-A Tulsa for his MLB debut.
MLB’s rules for two-way players require them to go on the 15-day IL rather than 10 days.
Ohtani was placed on the IL with an official designation of right biceps inflammation and the stint was backdated to Sept. 8. Ohtani has also been dealing with lingering left knee discomfort and more recently a neck issue as well.
Last week saw Ohtani miss four games in a row after going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in an extra-innings loss against the St. Louis Cardinals.
“I saw the same thing that everyone saw,” manager Dave Roberts said after the game. “I saw the shaking of the arm, I saw the wincing, and clearly the swings aren’t who he is. Obviously there’s some compensation.”
Also last week, Roberts allowed for the likelihood of Ohtani’s physical ailments being a reason behind his slump at the plate. Though, it’s a notion Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes have previously downplayed.
Roberts sent a text message to inform Ohtani he would not play in the series finale against the Cardinals. He deemed the 32-year-old day-to-day moving forward and maintained Ohtani going on the injured list wasn’t likely.
However, Roberts then softened on that stance when discussing Ohtani’s status before last Friday’s game as he missed another contest.
“Hopeful,” Roberts answered when asked if he still anticipated Ohtani avoiding the injured list. “But I wouldn’t say confident. Hopeful. We’ll see.”
After the Dodgers’ win over the Washington Nationals, Roberts said he wasn’t yet certain of Ohtani’s availability for the second game of the weekend series. Ohtani wound up missing that as well, but he did manage to take swings in the batting cage without any pain or discomfort.
Ohtani finally returned to the Dodgers lineup on Labor Day, only to take a swing that Roberts said “he didn’t feel great on” and hadn’t “totally recovered” from in order to play on Wednesday. With that, Ohtani was out of the lineup for a sixth time in seven games, and it seemingly spurred the Dodgers into an injured list move.
Ohtani is eligible to be activated on Sept. 23, at which point the Dodgers will have five regular season games remaining.
Shohei Ohtani’s injured list history
Ohtani is on the injured list for the first time in his Dodgers career. Aside from occasional days off, he had previously only missed consecutive games with the team while going on the paternity list in 2025.
Before this year, Ohtani hadn’t missed so much as a single game because of a physical issue since since May 2024 due to lower back tightnesss.
In 2018, the Los Angeles Angels put Ohtani on the 10-day injured list because of a sprained UCL in his right elbow. Ohtani then started the 2019 season with the Angels on the 10-day IL while he still recovered from having Tommy John surgery.
Both instances were prior to MLB bringing back the 15-day IL for pitchers and two-way players in 2022.
Ohtani’s last IL stint came in September 2023, as his season ended early due to right oblique inflammation. He already had been ruled out from pitching after tearing the UCL in his right elbow of that year.
Have you subscribed to the Dodger Blue YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows and giveaways, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
