Shohei Ohtani (29, Los Angeles Angels) had his season ended prematurely by injury. An elbow injury ended his season as a pitcher, and an oblique injury ended his season as a hitter. His last game with the Angels may have already been played.
The Angels officially announced on Sunday that they placed Ohtani on the 10-day disabled list (IL). The reason: an oblique injury. Ohtani complained of pain in his right side while taking batting practice on May 5 and hasn’t played since.
Ohtani has impressed fans and the media alike with his determination to continue playing after already suffering an elbow injury. For now, it appears that he has been hoping to return for some time. He stayed off the disabled list and checked his progress every day, but his return kept getting pushed back. At one point, Angels manager Phil Nevin expected him to return on the 17th or 18th, but he ended up going on the disabled list on the 17th.
Ohtani is theoretically unable to play in a major league game for 10 days. However, the Angels added that Ohtani will not play the rest of the season. He’s out for the season. The Angels have 14 games left in the regular season as of the 16th, but Ohtani’s 2023 season is over.
Ohtani hasn’t exactly been injury-prone since his major league debut in 2018. He tore a ligament in his elbow during the 2018 season, a serious injury, but he continued to play as a hitter. He underwent ACL reconstruction (Tommy John surgery) after the season, and after rehabilitation, he hasn’t missed a game since 2019. In 2021, he returned to pitching in earnest and became a sensation with his paradigm-shifting two-hitter.
This year has been no different. Before the season, he participated in the fifth World Baseball Classic (WBC), where he performed well as both a hitter and pitcher, leading his country Japan to victory. It was Ota who threw the game-winning pitch that sealed Japan’s victory. He continued to perform well as a pitcher and a hitter this season. As a pitcher, he was on pace to challenge for the Cy Young Award, and as a hitter, he led the title race in home runs and other categories, making him a favorite to win his second Most Valuable Player (MVP) award in 2021.
As a hitter, Ohtani has played in 135 games this year, batting .304 with 44 home runs, 95 RBI, 102 runs scored, 20 doubles, and a 1.066 OPS. Despite his recent absence from the game, he still leads the American League in home runs and slugging percentage. On the mound, he started 23 games and threw 132 innings, posting a 10-5 record with a 3.14 ERA and 167 strikeouts. He was dominant in both pitching and hitting.
But things started to unravel on Aug. 24 when he felt something wrong with his arm while pitching in Game 1 of a doubleheader against Cincinnati and was pulled from the game, and further tests revealed a torn ligament in his right elbow. He stopped pitching and focused on hitting. However, his batting showed some abnormalities as well, such as a decrease in launch angle, and now he”s no longer able to pitch or hit this season.
An oblique injury is not a big deal. It’s something that will resolve with rest. The problem is the elbow. Ohtani’s camp emphasizes that it’s a different area than when he had Tommy John in 2018. The area was healthy then, and since it’s a new area, the rehabilitation period won’t be as long. In fact, he doesn’t need the surgery if he only wants to hit. However, if he wants to continue playing both, he”ll need surgery. In this case, hitters can do it next year, but pitchers won”t be able to do it until mid-2025 or later.
This issue is of greater interest because Ohtani is eligible for free agency after this season. Ohtani’s value comes from his unique ability to pitch and hit. Any team that signs him will want to make sure he’s healthy to start next year. With the season ending so early, the odds are stacked in favor of Ohtani going under the knife for elbow surgery sooner rather than later. In theory, he could have the surgery now and be ready to hit for Opening Day next year.
Meanwhile, his time with the Angels ended without a farewell game. Ohtani signed with the Angels in 2018 and spent six years with them until this year. The Angels can’t afford to keep him. There hasn’t been much movement on an extension. Ohtani’s last game in an Angels uniform will be on September 4 in Oakland, when he went 0-for-3 with a walk, two strikeouts and a stolen base in a designated hitter role. Until then, I didn’t think it would end this way, but now it’s a reality.
The first-ever “two-time unanimous MVP” for 2021 is also a labyrinth. Ohtani was a unanimous choice for American League MVP in 2021. Even if he wasn’t a pitcher, the consensus was that he would have been a unanimous MVP this year had he continued to build on his season as a hitter. 안전놀이터
In fact, according to Baseball-Reference, Ohtani’s WAR this year is 10.0 for pitching and hitting combined, topping runner-up Corey Seager’s 6.9. But now that he’s ceded much of his American League batting title to other players, there could be some votes for him.