Shohei Ohtani is on the injured list again. On Saturday, September 13, 2026, the Los Angeles Dodgers placed him on the IL — the fourth time that’s happened in his MLB career. Right elbow UCL in 2018, right elbow again in 2019, oblique in 2023, and now this in 2026. The pattern is real. So is the other pattern: he has always come back.
Four IL stints, same ending every time
A thread that circulated on X on September 13 laid it out cleanly:
- 2018: UCL injury, right elbow
- 2019: Another right elbow issue
- 2023: Oblique strain
- 2026: Back on the IL
Four IL placements across eight MLB seasons. What that thread doesn’t mention — but the numbers do — is that every time Ohtani came back, he came back as good or better. After Tommy John surgery stemming from the 2018 injury, he hit 34, 44, and 46 home runs as a hitter. After the 2023 oblique, he won his second MVP and signed the largest contract in the history of professional sports. The IL has never been the end of a chapter for him. It’s always been the intermission.
What he leaves behind going in
Ohtani entered this IL stint in the middle of a two-way season that’s hard to fully wrap your head around.
At the plate: a .902 OPS with 30 home runs and 80 RBI in 134 games. His xwOBA of .399 puts him in the 99th percentile in MLB for contact quality — better than 99% of hitters in the league. The one area where he grades below average as a hitter is whiff rate, where he sits in the 12th percentile; he’s been strikeout-prone. Everything else is elite or close to it.
On the mound: a 1.79 ERA across 14 starts and 85.2 innings. His fastball averages 97.8 mph, opposing hitters are batting just .180 against him, and his average exit velocity allowed is 87.4 mph — one of the lowest marks in baseball, meaning contact against him has been consistently soft. He’s also striking out 27.9% of the batters he faces.
Why this one feels different
The difference between this IL placement and the previous three is context. In 2018 and 2019, he was a young player still finding his footing in the majors. In 2023, he was a superstar on the verge of signing the deal of the century. In 2026, he is the player the Dodgers built everything around — and September is the doorstep of the postseason.
The exact nature of this injury hasn’t been specified. That matters. An Ohtani who enters the playoffs at 80% is not the same player who’s been posting a 95th-percentile xERA on the mound. The question isn’t whether he comes back — he always does — it’s what shape he’s in when he does, and whether he can pitch in October.
The Dodgers already navigated a postseason with a hitting-only Ohtani in 2023. What they have in 2026 is different: a version of him that is also one of the most dominant pitchers in the game. Losing that half of him in October would mean losing half the player — and even half of Ohtani is still one of the best on the field.
