On July 22, outfielder Alex Call hopped over the dugout railing during a post-game handshake line and his left cleat landed squarely on Shohei Ohtani‘s right elbow. The video went viral immediately. Less than four weeks later, Ohtani fell into the worst slump of his career: a .157 AVG, a .488 OPS, and zero home runs over 24 games. With the Dodgers now down 0-2 in the NLCS, the question spreading across every corner of baseball social media is whether those two things are connected.
The Incident That Started the Conversation
It was July 22 at Citizens Bank Park. The Dodgers had just beaten the Phillies 9-5 and players were lining up to shake hands. Call jumped the railing without looking and his cleat came down directly on Ohtani’s right elbow. On video, Ohtani shakes his arm, steps away from the line for a few seconds, then rejoins. No injury report. No official statement. Nothing.
What makes the video feel like more than a routine celebration mishap is the context: that right elbow has already been through two Tommy John surgeries, and Ohtani had been managing soreness in his right biceps and left knee for weeks. He also hadn’t pitched since July 3. A blow to that joint, with that history, doesn’t read the same way it would on any other player.
What We Know for Certain: The Slump Is Real and the Numbers Are Alarming
Exactly 28 days after the dugout incident, Ohtani hit his last home run of the regular season — August 18 against the Rockies at Coors Field. Starting August 19, the numbers fell off a cliff:
- .157 AVG over 24 games
- .488 OPS
- 36 strikeouts
- 1 RBI
- 0 home runs
Before that date he was a top-5 hitter in the majors. After it, he ranked among the ten weakest bats in the league.
Statcast adds another layer. His average bat speed dropped to 74.7 mph in 2026, and his hard-hit percentage fell more than 11 percentage points from previous seasons, hitting a career-low 47.1% in the final stretch. When a hitter with Ohtani’s raw power starts losing mph on his swing, that’s a physical signal — not just opposing pitchers making adjustments.
The postseason brought no relief. In six playoff games he’s batting .150 with no extra-base hits and no RBIs. During the NLDS against the Braves, the Dodgers dropped him to fifth in the lineup — his lowest spot in over six years. In Game 2 of the NLCS against the Brewers on October 12, he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Los Angeles is down 0-2, and Dave Roberts publicly admitted he considered sitting Ohtani. On October 13 Roberts confirmed Ohtani will stay in the lineup as DH for Game 3, but that decision doesn’t close the debate.
Was It the Cleat — or the Cost of Being Two Players at Once?
The viral narrative writes itself: Call’s cleat hit Ohtani on July 22 and Ohtani was never the same. It’s a clean story. The problem is there is not a single medical report linking that contact to the offensive collapse. The documented injuries — right biceps, left knee — predate the incident and have their own paper trail. Ohtani kept playing DH without interruption after July 22, and it took nearly a month before the offensive freefall began.
The most evidence-backed explanation points elsewhere: the accumulated toll of trying to be, simultaneously, one of the best hitters and one of the best pitchers in MLB. Ohtani made 14 starts in 2026 with a 1.79 ERA, but stopped pitching July 3 due to the biceps and knee issues. That kind of wear doesn’t show up in the next day’s box score — it sends the bill weeks later, right when a player tries to go back to hitting like nothing happened. He spent two weeks on the injured list in September — his first IL stint as a Dodger — and returned only for the final five regular-season games.
Could the cleat have aggravated something that was already fragile? Possibly — nobody rules it out entirely. Was it the cause of the slump? The data doesn’t support that conclusion. And that distinction matters, especially when the debate shapes how the Dodgers manage their most valuable player in the most important postseason of their era.
Ohtani’s Full 2026 Numbers
At the plate (618 plate appearances):
- 30 home runs, 81 RBIs
- AVG: .275 · OPS: .889
- xwOBA: .397 (98th percentile — elite)
- Exit velocity: 93.3 mph (97th percentile — elite)
- Barrel rate: 16.4% (99th percentile — elite)
- Hard-hit rate: 52.1% (95th percentile — elite)
- Bat speed: 74.7 mph (80th percentile)
- Whiff rate: 11th percentile (among the highest contact rates in MLB)
On the mound (14 starts, 85.2 innings):
- ERA: 1.79 · WHIP: 0.95
- 95 strikeouts, 26 walks (27.9% K rate)
- xERA: 2.74 (95th percentile — elite)
- Fastball: 97.8 mph average, 2,459 rpm spin
- Whiff rate: 30.4% (85th percentile)
- Opponents batting .180 against him
- Exit velocity allowed: 87.4 mph · Barrel rate allowed: 3.8% (95th percentile — elite)
- Hard-hit rate allowed: 83rd percentile
