Why the Dodgers Still Plan To Rest Shohei Ohtani Despite His Breakout Homer
Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles) Weeks of frustration turned into a sense of relief and, finally, a moment of levity Tuesday for Shohei Ohtani, who jokingly asked his teammates in the dugout for the home-run ball after he went deep for the first time since April 28. Lately, even brief spurts of joy and frivolity have come sparingly for the Los Angeles Dodgers during their extended offensive funk. On Tuesday, those moments were fleeting again as the Dodgers lost for the fourth straight day and the ninth time in their last 13 games. But Ohtani, who entered the night 4-for-38 over his past 11 games, reached base three times and ended his long-ball drought. Leading off the third inning, he took a sinker off the outer edge from San Francisco Giants starter Adrian Houser the other way with a 105.9 mph liner off the bat for a 398-foot home run. Amid the offenses larger struggles, manager Dave Roberts felt like it might have been a turning point for his scuffling slugger, even if Ohtani couldnt stop the spiral for the rest of a dormant lineup that has scored two runs or fewer over the past 13 games. If the two-way superstar hopes to build on his encouraging performance at the plate, though, it will have to wait. The Dodgers plan to give the four-time MVP a breather, holding him out of the lineup for the next two games amid his prolonged slump. "The pros are, taking the hitting part off his plate, letting his body recover a little bit as far as being a two-way player for a couple days, playing more of the longer view, potentially giving him a reset on the offensive side," Roberts explained Tuesday afternoon, before Ohtanis breakout night. "The con is just not being able to write his name in the lineup at the top of the order." After already informing the player of his plan, Roberts wasnt swayed by Ohtanis slump-busting two-hit game. "I dont like the bait and switch," Roberts said. "To go back on a pact, a decision, that we came upon, or I came upon, I dont like that." The plan is for Ohtani to only pitch on Wednesday, marking the fourth time in his last five starts on the mound that he wont be in the lineup. Ohtani is then expected to get Thursday off, too. When or if that happens, it will be the first time in Ohtanis tenure with the Dodgers that hell be held out of the lineup in consecutive games despite being available to play. Ohtani is expected to be available to pinch-hit late on Thursday, but Roberts hopes that the superstar takes advantage of the extra rest and shows up a little later to the field. "For me, with any hitter, when the quality of at-bat starts to go down consistently, I think thats a telling sign there needs to be a break," Roberts said. Roberts told me that Ohtani hasnt expressed that hes dealing with fatigue, but it seems like it might be a factor in his at-bats of late as he assumes full two-way duties for the first time since 2023. Beyond the dip in surface-level numbers, Ohtanis bat speed is down a tick from last season. Hes posting his lowest hard-hit rate since 2020, and his chase rate is the highest its been in the past six years. "I think the fatigue is bleeding into the mechanics," Roberts said. "I think that most players get that towards the end of the summer. And now Im 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." Dodgers pitching coach Aaron Bates told me that if Ohtani is dealing with any fatigue, it might be more mental than physical. If Ohtani is tired, Bates reasoned, he wouldnt still be trying to steal bases, as he has done four times in his past 14 games. Bates believes Ohtani is capable of handling this workload. Roberts maintains that he is, too, but also acknowledged that the plan the Dodgers had for Ohtani before the season is "fluid" and requires reading and reacting. "We have an opportunity to do things the way we feel are best for him," Roberts said. "So, no one thought it was gonna be easy. No one thought it was gonna be linear." On the mound, Ohtani looks like a Cy Young contender. He has a 0.97 ERA and has gone at least six innings in each of his six starts. At the plate, Ohtanis downturn is one of many problems for a Dodgers' offense that ranks 18th in runs scored, 20th in home runs and 21st in slugging since April 18, a span of 23 games. But its a significant one. Even after his two-hit performance Tuesday, Ohtani is batting just .200 with two home runs over his last 17 games. His .796 OPS is the lowest its been through his teams first 42 games since 2022. After going hitless in just 25.9% of his games last year, he has done so in 41% of his games this season. His 17 RBIs are also his fewest ever to this point of a season, and his seven home runs are his fewest through his teams first 42 games since 2020. Often, Bates said, Ohtanis misses are the same as they were last year, where hes chasing balls in the dirt or hitting them too far out front and rolling over. "He would just mix in the homers between the misses," Bates explained. "So, when youre not necessarily hitting the homers, the rockets, the doubles, and you have the same misses, it looks probably worse than it is." Ohtani has been adamant that he doesnt think his pitching is impacting his hitting, but he has acknowledged that its more difficult in this current role to devote the time necessary to fix his swing when something is off. He has to keep his health at the forefront, which means balancing his workload and monitoring his repetitions while also trying to perform his Herculean tasks. Over the past week, for instance, he has hit on the field multiple times before games, a tactic he only tries when hes searching for something at the plate. But he has had to work that batting practice around his bullpen sessions in preparation for his start on Wednesday. "Its always a juggling act," Bates said. "Its just bandwidth, I think, pitching and hitting full season now. And also last year, he was doing really well when he started layering the pitching in, so you kind of had the hitting on, not autopilot, but he knew where he was at and what he wanted to do. I think this year, combining both those with the shortened spring training and the WBC, its been a lot of factors." Tuesday was a giant step in the right direction, but it didn't alter the Dodgers' strategy. They still plan to hold him out of the lineup the next two games, according to Roberts, who did not express any concern that the decision might halt Ohtani's positive momentum. "I just cant take for granted whats on his plate, so Im trying to be sensitive to that," Roberts said. "Im learning that you have to be proactive because hes always going to want to do more. He always has that sense of responsibility to his teammates that he wants to be out there both ways."
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