DETROIT -- Shohei Ohtani experienced discomfort in his troublesome left knee during a recent bullpen session, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are suddenly unsure when he will rejoin their rotation.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts announced after Saturday's 2-1 walk-off loss to the Detroit Tigers that Ohtani will not start Sunday's series finale as previously anticipated. Tyler Glasnow, who was already scheduled to take down most of the innings after Ohtani served as an opener in that game, will start in his place. There is no target date for Ohtani's return to the rotation at the moment, but the team has not decided to shut him down yet, either.
"If any pitcher was feeling like this, we wouldn't run him out there," Roberts said. "So that's what we're doing."
Seven days ago, Ohtani's return to pitching appeared promising. He threw 30 pitches in a simulated game last Saturday and planned to get off a mound again early in the ensuing week, while the team was in Atlanta. Assuming that went well, Ohtani was on track to rejoin the rotation thereafter. But that bullpen was pushed to Friday and lasted only 20 pitches, 10 to 15 throws shorter than his typical between-starts session. The following morning, Roberts reported that Ohtani is still not completely healthy.
The left knee that has kept him from pitching in a game since July 3 continues to irritate him. The right biceps issue that flared up several weeks ago still hasn't completely gone away. Roberts said "the overall body" is sore, too. To what extent is unclear.
"That's the hard part right now," Roberts said before Saturday's game, "is trying to figure out: If he's not 100% overall body, is it worth giving him a minute to build up or not?"
Ohtani operated like one of the best pitchers in the sport when healthy, going 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA in 14 starts, striking out 95 batters and issuing 26 walks in 85⅔ innings through the first three months of this season.
The Dodgers value him on the mound, especially because his presence as a two-way player provides them with an extra pitcher. But his impact at the top of their lineup is even more important, especially with Tarik Skubal, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Glasnow easily making up a formidable four-man postseason rotation without him.
"His value offensively is hugely important, and so we can't compromise that in any fashion," Roberts said. "If throwing potentially cuts into that, that's not worth the squeeze."
Ohtani's two-way designation allows him to count as an extra pitcher, providing him the freedom to essentially rehab in a major league setting. Given that, Ohtani would have thrown just one inning Sunday, then progressively tacked on over the ensuing weeks, similar to how he navigated his return from a second elbow surgery last summer. Starting Sunday would have provided him with five turns through the rotation before the end of the regular season, giving him time to build up to a load close to that of a traditional starting pitcher by October. That seems highly unlikely at the moment.
Ohtani has also struggled offensively of late, following a two-homer game Aug. 17 with six hits in his next 40 at-bats. But Roberts said neither Ohtani nor the trainers have expressed that he has had any discomfort while hitting.
Asked about shutting Ohtani down from pitching entirely, Roberts said: "I don't think that we've made that decision yet. I think for us, it's: Take tomorrow off the table, let's get back to L.A, let's kind of figure out where his body is at, and then go from there."