NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani’s knee is still bothering him.
And now, exactly when he will return to the mound for the Dodgers has become ominously unclear.
On Sunday, manager Dave Roberts announced Ohtani will not make a pitching start on Wednesday as initially expected, after the two-way star continued to feel discomfort in his bothersome left knee during catch play this weekend.
Roberts added that the team didn’t know when Ohtani — who will continue to hit in the Dodgers’ lineup in the meantime — would pitch again but suggested “that it’s going to be some time” before he is back on the bump.
“His knee, we just want to continue to give it the best chance to kind of get into a good spot,” Roberts said. “And as he said, as we feel, it’s the pitching and the torque of landing on that leg that kind of gets it upset.”
Ohtani has not made a pitching start for the Dodgers since July 3 while continuing to battle a knee problem that first surfaced in mid-June.
The two-way star had his final start before the All-Star break last Friday scratched, then skipped All-Star festivities to receive a lubricant injection in his knee last Sunday.
The team had hoped that treatment would allow the 32-year-old to resume pitching duties once the second half began.
But now, Ohtani’s status remains shrouded in even more uncertainty, with Roberts unable to provide even a rough timeline for his return to the mound.
“It’s not going to be a day-to-day thing,” Roberts said. “The first step is getting him into a spot where he feels like, and we feel like, he can pitch and not regress. At that point in time, we can kind of read and react. I just can’t even answer [when that might be] right now.”
Roberts tried to downplay bigger-picture concerns over Ohtani’s knee issue. He said he still fully expected the four-time MVP to pitch again this year. He described Ohtani’s current layoff as more of a precaution, thanks to “where we’re at and how we’ve put ourselves in a good spot” in the standings.
“Could he probably do it? Sure,” Roberts said of Ohtani trying to pitch through his knee injury now. “But right now, the benefits just don’t seem to outweigh the cost at this time of the season. I think we still have plenty of time to get him to a good spot.”
Roberts also noted that the decision to postpone Ohtani’s next start was made after the player and coaching staff discussed his health in recent days.
“It was more of the training staff talking to him about, ‘Hey, coming out of the break, how does Wednesday look? How do you feel? If you don’t feel 100%, we have the opportunity to just kick the can,’” Roberts said. “The player is always gonna want to be out there and participate. But I think it’s more driven by the organization saying, ‘Hey, if you’re not 100% right, you don’t have to do this.’”
Still, Ohtani’s knee discomfort was significant enough that he didn’t even attempt a bullpen session before reaching that conclusion.
“That was enough for him to talk to the trainers and feel that there was no need to test it with a bullpen where he already knew the answer,” Roberts said. “For us, it’s like we’ve done many times over, erring on the side of caution.”
Suddenly, it all leaves the Dodgers facing some pivotal questions about their pitching staff –– needing to replace Ohtani in the rotation short term and decide if more reinforcements are needed at the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
To the former question, Roberts said the Dodgers would try to maintain a six-man rotation, which will become easier once Blake Snell completes a rehab assignment he began on Saturday night with a 1 ⅓-inning outing with Triple-A Oklahoma City.
In the interim, the Dodgers could use bullpen games, spot starts and strategic scheduling around off-days to get by.
For the second leg of Sunday’s doubleheader against the Yankees, the club opted for a bullpen game while pushing Emmet Sheehan back to Monday’s series opener in Philadelphia against the Phillies (Justin Wrobleski and Eric Lauer will be the other two starters for that series).
“The rotation can keep going forward without Shohei, for the time being,” Roberts said. “Again, I can’t speak to how long that’s going to be.”
Longer term, however, Ohtani’s knee will now be an unwanted variable in the Dodgers’ three-peat plans.
Roberts said, ideally, this current break will help the right-hander’s knee get back to full health. But, because the problem flares up when Ohtani pitches, thanks to the force generated every time he lands on his front left leg, there’s no certainty that it won’t continue to linger for the rest of the year.
“I’m sure he’s going to work on that,” Roberts said when asked if there are tweaks Ohtani can make to his pitching mechanics to take pressure off his knee. “But you’ve got to obviously get off the mound and see how it feels when you get on the mound.”
For now, when that will be is an unknown.
After a first half full of two-way excellence, Ohtani is now grappling with the toll his dueling roles have taken.
