Angels right-hander Shohei Ohtani went down Monday with a Grade 1-2 flexor pronator mass strain. It looked then as if Ohtani wouldn’t make a return to the mound this year because of his four- to six-week timeline to begin throwing again. Manager Joe Maddon confirmed Tuesday that Ohtani is likely done as a pitcher for 2020, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports (Twitter links). The team will reevaluate his forearm Wednesday, according to Maddon (via Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times).
Fortunately, as an ultra-rare two-way talent, Ohtani’s not finished contributing for the year. Even though he probably won’t pitch again in 2020, Ohtani’s healthy enough that he’ll continue factoring in as a designated hitter. He has been quite successful in that role (not so much in the early going this year), though it’s nevertheless a loss for the Angels and the sport itself that the 26-year-old hasn’t been able to complete a season as a pitcher. The former Tommy John surgery patient has just 53 1/3 innings under his belt since he emigrated from Japan before the 2017 campaign.
Elsewhere on the roster, Maddon revealed that just-promoted outfield prospect Jo Adell will play every day. The elite farmhand, 21, will make his much-anticipated debut against the Mariners on Tuesday. The hope is that Adell and the return of all-world center fielder Mike Trout, who has been on paternity leave, will give the 3-7 Halos a desperately needed shot in the arm.
With Adell now in the mix, the Angels will platoon fellow corner outfielders Justin Upton (a right-handed hitter) and Brian Goodwin (a lefty) through year’s end. That isn’t the outcome the Angels envisioned when they signed Upton to a five-year, $106MM contract before 2018, but his production has been lacking since last season. Goodwin has been a bright spot dating back to 2019, on the other hand, and he’s off to a dazzling .333/.412/.667 start over 34 plate appearances this year.
I don’t see any reason to rush him back this year. Though I hope he can still continue to try and pitch going forward. He could really change the way we play the game and develop prospects, and I want to see him succeed as a two-way guy, regardless if that’s in a starting, relief capacity, and anything in between.
The Angels now need to get at least one starter and some bullpen help by the trade deadline. With 16 teams making the playoffs it will be a tragedy to see Mike Trout again watching on tv from home.
They needed pitching before they lost Ohtani.
that team needa a better training staff
*needs
its not the training staff. There’s alot of medical people besides the Angel training staff have input. They been handling him with kids gloves.
How’s that when you allow him to hit and pitch?
Not nearly as good a headline, but I also don’t expect to Shohei Ohtani To Pitch Again In 2020
Hot take
I kinda doubt he pitches again
Sadly I am beginning to think so too.
They should use him in a relief role.
No way will be pitch this year. 4-6 weeks isn’t long enough. I strained my pronator years ago. That is torn tissue. It burns whenever you twist your forearm. 4-6 weeks maybe before he can begin working out that forearm and build up strength.
That’s the title of the article.
I’d like to see him succeed at both hitting and pitching as anyone, it’s good for the game, but…
There might be a reason it’s been a hundred years or whatever since anyone did it.
That reason is largely that most players try to focus on being good at one thing instead of potentially spreading themselves thin. It isn’t because of fear of injury
You could argue hitters and pitchers do different workouts to train, and his attempts to do both have led to him being less prepared physically as a pitcher…
The talent and physical ability it takes to be sustainably good at both is way more than the talent and physical ability it takes to be sustainably good at one or the other.
Sometimes you recover from tommy john in 18 months. Sometimes it’s almost three years. It’s not unexpected or even a set back.
With him in the lineup, the Angels have the best 2 through 4 in baseball. It’s hard for me to be too upset.
Your bias makes you sound like an ignorant; learn the game @ Halo11
fvognocchi
Four years ago. Yes, it’s a set back. Some pitchers come back quickly after 18 months some don’t.
The Washington Nationals fan base (not to mention the team and front office) held its collective breath last Wednesday night as Stephen Strasburg exited just 42 pitches into his first start back from the disabled list, wincing in pain with an apparent injury to his pitching arm. The eventual diagnosis of the injury — a strained flexor-pronator mass with no apparent damage to the ulnar collateral ligament — was one that brought some measure of relief, but also confusion as to the severity of the injury and potential ramifications.
Or just another ‘setback’ … smh
Halo11Fan, you are not getting rave reviews for your analysis here.
The funny thing, Halo, is that I don’t see you as especially far to the left. You’ve always seemed like a moderate to me. I’m pretty far to the left, and sometimes I agree with you and other times I disagree.
Oh well: I guess we’re just both WeIrDoS fRoM CaLiFoRnIa! /cheerful sarcasm/
Any timeline on when that fault line is going to open up and California floats out to sea?
That’s EXACTLY how earthquakes work….
I get bashed by the left and the right. I get bashed by Angel fans and people who want the Angels to fail. I must be doing something right.
I keeping bringing this up, Puk is in his age 25 season. His had surgery in April of 2018. He’s not back. Ohtani had surgery 6 months after that. People who think one size fits all don’t have much life experience.
Stop with Puk! Bring up another pitcher!
I dont agree with you much Halo, but you are spot on here. There is not even a large enough data set to say a certain time frame for recovery, as the small set we have does not show full soccers to where a player was prior. And, all of the pitchers who came back had time to rest, this dude played during down time hitting the ball rather hard. We have no idea of that plays as a negative or positive in this equation.
While I would like to see him succeed at both, it seems more unlikely now, just given what we have seen. Hopefully i am wrong in a couple years.
He will be pitching next year. If he had marginal stuff then ya you might scrap the pitching. But his stuff is electric and he takes care if his body. So a “normal” ST He should be good to go in 2021.
He was pretty abysmal at the plate the first week as well
I was very disappointed when I thought the Yankees had a chance to get him after acquiring a lot of international money. I guess it was a blessing. The only mistake Yankees made was getting Stanton instead of Yelich that winter.
Not everyone wants to be a Yankee.
Thats ridiculous. He cost the league minimum and is a 3-5 war hitter with a flier on his pitching skills. Yankees fans gonna yankeefan.
Just like the rest of the league was abysmal
Which nimrod let him throw 42 pitches in the second inning?
Three years ago they dumped $105 on a problematic LF. You were set in CF & RF. You couldn’t use a stop gap in LF for a year until you could figure out what you had in Goodwin and other young outfielders?
Brutal just brutal.
As a fan of baseball in general, this sucks
I heard, during his first start, that he can’t hit the game before he’s scheduled to pitch, he doesn’t hit when he pitches, and he doesn’t hit the game after he pitches. So he’s not really putting in the full work as a hitter, and he’s not doing the same routine as a starting pitcher, yet people wonder why he keeps getting hurt?
The only people “wondering why he keeps getting hurt” are the ones who aren’t paying attention to begin with.
His medicals from Japan indicated the probability of needing UCL procedure in the near future, but you have to wait until it fails. When it did, the surgery was performed and the rehab began.
In the offseason, he was discovered to have a defective knee joint from birth, and that was repaired surgically as well.
There are different training protocols for pitchers than for hitters, and he participates in both, daily. He does put in the full work, and his training routines are designed to enable both sides of his game.
It is precautionary to keep him out of the lineup the days before and after he pitches, but he hit the Monday following his first start, since it was so abbreviated. These are simply guidelines.
The first year back from TJ surgery for any pitcher is often a rocky road, and this is no exception. In addition, you have a game full of players who aren’t necessarily in their best form, due to the layoff from real Spring Training to the return to camps. He needs to rest the elbow from further pitching, and just concentrate on hitting the ball the remainder of this short season. Take the Winter off, follow the training guidelines of the surgeons, and revisit this next February.
This is hardly the end of his pitching career.
GeoKaplan
Wow… A well balanced post. I’m in awe.
Ok… can we finally put this guy in the category of a “bust” not a big paycheck.. but with all the hype. Pretty sleepy player.. not exactly Babe Ruth
I think we’re a long way from calling him a bust. He’s no Babe Ruth, but few are.
but ohtani is not an alcoholic with mob connections. thank god!
Vizionaire. The Angels fans excuses never end. They are instant World Champions every year and then they finish in last place.
that doesn’t change the fact that the most revered pitcher/hitter was an alcoholic with mob connections. if you don’t want to see that, it’s your choice to do so.
James – the Angels haven’t finished in last place in their division.
So Ohtani needs to be a drunk with connections to the Yakuza to be a successful two-way player?
I started following baseball in 1982. Since then, you can count on two hands the number of players who have been in the same area code as Babe Ruth: Schmidt, Bonds, Griffey, Pujols, Trout, Henderson, maybe A-Rod and Cabrera, maybe Brett and Gwynn and Ripken. By this logic, you might consider Robin Yount, Jeff Bagwell, Eddie Murray, and Andre Dawson to be “busts.”
He has been very effective on the field. Hardly a busy
Bust*
I wish you could edit on the app
.873 OPS over two partial seasons is far from a bust.
Yeah, anyone who isn’t Babe Ruth is pretty much a bust.
What a surprise.
Folks when Ohtani was shopping himself around to teams years ago, in these very pages, I reported that he would never be a successful pitcher in MLB because his arm and shoulder couldn’t hold up to MLB levels.
However I did report that if he was used primarily as an outfielder he would be an All-Star. Everyone better get used to the fact that Ohtani is a one position player only and not the phenom everyone thought. #Scoutseyes
Oh just you reported this? Golly wish I could be as good as you
Where’s my checkbook, time for you to get paid for your incredible hard work and unparalleled insight
Jimmertee reported nothing
How are his wrists?
Arm and shoulder are the issue.
No kidding.
Glad to see Upton losing playing time. Goodwin has earned a spot, even if it’s a platoon to make room for Adell.
What Ohtani needs, once his current arm issue is healed, is a normal full spring training to prepare properly. Rest the pitching arm until January/February. He’ll be fine for 2021.
Yes!!! Thank you! One voice of common sense.
Recovering from UCL surgery is different for each athlete, and many report it is a process to learn to “trust” their arm post-surgery. There is a fear to throw certain pitches or to move in a particular way, thinking it might rupture the replaced tendon or hurt the elbow all over again.
All these retired orthopedic surgeons weighing in on this site with their years of expertise are certainly helpful, sure, but it is a little premature to call the death of Ohtani’s pitching career.
He’s done as a 2 way player. It’s one or the other if the team wants to get anything out of him.
With the wide range of arm issues the angels staff has dealt with in last 5 years, I have to think there’s some training flaw somewhere in their system. Whether it’s over training or under training I don’t know, but the angels have had some type of pitching injury “bad luck”, that after a while it isn’t bad luck
With ohtani, I’m in the camp that thinks he’s not training enough to be a pitcher every 5 days. Maybe it can be done. But at this point, seems like his pitching needs more prep time vs his hitting
I think one of the elements that has prevented the game from seeing much in the way of successful two-way players is simply, you put that many more miles on your body. Ohtani certainly seems to have the ability, but that’s only part of the equation.
I see a lot of comments speculating that he may not be able to be a two-way player, but I think you have to take a different view with injuries this year. There seems to be an abundance of guys going down, and it’s hard to ignore the lack of a ST.
If this guy just stuck with hitting he be a consistant 20-25 hr 80-85 rbi player which you wouldn’t sneeze at anyday .
Don’t you actually have to play both sides to be considered a two way talent? Signed him with arm issues, still having arm issues. Shocker.
Angels are losing his at bats to this 2 way novelty, marketing concept.