Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani intends to pitch again in 2027

Bill Plunkett, The Orange County Register on Oct 16, 2026

Published in Baseball

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LOS ANGELES — As Shohei Ohtani stood in front of his locker – not in front of a sponsored background for once – and answered questions following the Dodgers’ season-ending loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night, there was one thing about which he was not vague or evasive.

He intends to pitch next season and return to being a two-way player again.

“Yes, definitely,” he said through his interpreter, Will Ireton. “And (I am) looking forward to having a better season next year.”

Ohtani was having a very good year as a pitcher through the first three months of the 2026 season. Through 14 starts and 85 2/3 innings, Ohtani was 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA and 95 strikeouts.

But he did not throw a pitch after July 3 due to injuries to his left knee and right arm.

There has been little transparency about what injuries Ohtani was specifically dealing with. The team announced he received a lubricant injection in his left knee at the All-Star break. But it was Ohtani himself who revealed he was feeling pain in his right biceps during the season.

That injury was never outlined in any detail. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said during the season that Ohtani had imaging (likely an MRI) on his right arm at some point and it didn’t reveal any structural damage.

Ohtani was asked directly after Thursday’s National League Championship Series finale if he anticipates requiring surgery or some type of medical procedure this offseason to address either his knee or arm issues.

“(It’s) hard to tell at this point,” he said. “It’s something that’s going to be analyzed, discussed over the offseason and see if that’s a viable thing to do.”

At age 32 now with a litany of significant health issues in his past — he has had surgery on his left knee, left shoulder and right elbow twice — the toll of two-way play over the course of the season might not be realistic for Ohtani much longer. The injuries he dealt with in 2026 not only curtailed his pitching at midseason. They also impacted his offensive production. His batting average (.275), on-base percentage (.377) and OPS (.889) were his lowest since 2022 with the Angels. His 30 home runs were his fewest in a full season since 2019.

When he arrived at spring training in February, Ohtani set as his goal “just being healthy the whole year.” He was unable to meet that goal and acknowledged Thursday night that he was “not quite satisfied with how things shaped up on the pitching side” in 2026, preventing him from pitching in the postseason. What that means for 2027, he could not say.

“I haven’t been able to really come to grips with what I’ve learned overall this season,” Ohtani said. “It’s something that I’m going to go back to the drawing board in terms of treatment, training programs and see what I can come up with for next season.”

Ohtani gave the Dodgers hope in Game 4 on Thursday with a three-run home run in the second inning. But that was his only home run since Aug. 18 and he finished the postseason 5 for 26 (.192) with just that one extra-base hit. He said he was “very disappointed” in the results.

“The Brewers were overall strong and a very good team and it really … exposed some of the parts of me as a player and I have to give some credit to that,” he said.