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Back in December, Shohei Ohtani signed a massive 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The reigning AL MVP will play in the NL West this upcoming season, and the Dodgers are seen as the biggest favorites to win the World Series.
Ohtani is arguably the best player the game has ever seen, and that is due to him being a two-way player. However, unfortunately, Dodgers fans will not have the luxury of seeing the 29-year-old pitch this year.
Why will Ohtani not pitch this season? How serious is his injury? Let's take a look at his latest status with less than a month left until the opening day.
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Shohei Ohtani Injury Update
As per the latest reports, Shohei Ohtani is recovering from a UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) injury and will not pitch this season. He had surgery last September, and although it was different from a Tommy John surgery, the recovery time will be similar to the latter.
He'll still be able to bat, and will likely play as a designated hitter throughout the season. Ohtani will be ready to pitch in 2025, but until then, the team has to rely on Tyler Glasnow, Bobby Miller, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Walker Buehler.
Last season, the Japanese superstar pitched 132.0 innings and recorded 167 strikeouts with a 3.14 ERA while giving up 85 hits. The Dodgers have a stacked roster, and not many will be surprised if they win the World Series even without Ohtani's two-way ability.
i think a lot of mlb fans view shohei ohtani as just some glorified dh that occasionally pitches, but nah bruh, this is a man who really misses and loves pitching 😭 and it's so obvious he cant wait to pitch again 🥹 pic.twitter.com/4XjeQckbGe
— 🧧🧋 VforVera¹⁷🧋🧧 (@VforVintageVera) February 23, 2024
Shohei Ohtani Fantasy Baseball Outlook
As mentioned earlier, Shohei Ohtani is the reigning AL MVP award winner. Before getting hurt last season, he played 135 games and had a batting average of .304 with 151 hits, 44 home runs, 95 RBI, and 102 runs scored.
Ohtani was off to a hot start last year, and at one point, many thought he could break Aaron Judge's AL single-season home run record (62). His elbow injury ruined his last season with the Los Angeles Angels, but now he has an opportunity to win the first World Series of his career with the Dodgers.
Although he will not pitch this season, Ohtani can still win the MVP award. With Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman batting ahead of him, the two-way player can rack up a lot of RBI this season.
Shohei Ohtani.
Did you expect anything different? pic.twitter.com/3GdjwQ6zsf
— MLB (@MLB) February 27, 2024
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