Shohei Ohtani didn’t sugarcoat it after Monday’s game on September 7: he most likely won’t pitch again in 2026, and he called the situation ‘disappointing.’ Not a word about his 30 home runs or his .902 OPS — just the frustration of not being able to finish what he started on the mound, where he’d built a 1.79 ERA across 14 starts before his body gave out.
Why Ohtani calls this season disappointing — with those numbers
This isn’t a complaint about his bat or the team’s record. It’s more specific than that. Ohtani came into 2026 committed to being the two-way player baseball hadn’t seen in decades, and the plan didn’t survive the full season. His last official pitching appearance was July 3, when he threw 110 pitches against the Mariners. His next time up to bat, he hurt his right bicep.
What followed was a chain reaction: left knee discomfort (his landing leg when he pitches), a bullpen session on August 28 that aggravated the bicep, and more recently soreness in his neck and arm. The Dodgers gave him four full days of rest. He came back Monday as the DH, went 0-for-3 with a walk, and confirmed what most people already suspected.
Manager Dave Roberts kept it simple: ‘Right now, it just doesn’t make any sense.’ There’s no IL stint, no shutdown — Ohtani is still in the lineup hitting. But the two-way experiment in 2026 is over before October.
What’s lost — and what’s left for the postseason
What’s lost is significant. In those 14 starts, Ohtani was in the middle of a legitimate Cy Young conversation: he struck out 27.9% of batters faced, posted a 0.95 WHIP, and held opponents to a .180 batting average. Those aren’t numbers from a pitcher who was ‘doing fine’ — those are numbers from one of the best arms in baseball, for as long as it lasted.
What remains is also real. As a hitter, Ohtani is slashing .277/.380/.522 with 30 home runs and 80 RBI. His wRC+ of 143 — meaning he’s been 43% more productive than the average MLB hitter — keeps him in the NL MVP conversation, though Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Cubs is making that debate complicated with 41 home runs, 97 RBI, and 35 stolen bases.
For the playoffs, the Dodgers rotation still has Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell, and Tyler Glasnow. Ohtani won’t be part of that — he enters October as the designated hitter who can change a game with one swing. That’s not nothing. But it’s not what he had planned.
The numbers behind the player
Ohtani plays both sides of the game, and Statcast tracks both. Here’s where he stands in 2026:
At the plate:
- 596 plate appearances in 2026
- 30 home runs and 80 RBI
- AVG: .277 · OPS: .902
- xwOBA: .399 (99th percentile — elite)
- Average exit velocity: 93.2 mph (97th percentile)
- Barrel rate: 15.8% (97th percentile)
- Hard-hit rate: 51.5% (94th percentile)
- Average bat speed: 74.6 mph (80th percentile)
On the mound:
- 14 starts, 85.2 innings pitched
- ERA: 1.79 · WHIP: 0.95
- 95 strikeouts, 26 walks (27.9% K rate — 85th percentile)
- xERA: 2.72 (95th percentile)
- Average fastball: 97.8 mph with 2,459 rpm spin (93rd percentile velocity, 89th percentile spin)
- Whiff rate: 30.4% (86th percentile)
- Opponents batting average: .180
- Average exit velocity allowed: 87.4 mph
- Barrel rate allowed: 3.8% (94th percentile in barrels avoided)
