The Dodgers announced today that Shohei Ohtani underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a labrum tear in his left shoulder that resulted from a dislocation. The club added that the two-way star is expected to be ready for spring training.
Ohtani was clearly hurt in game two of the World Series. He attempted to steal second base, sliding into the bag and wincing in pain afterwards. He left the field with the trainer though technically wasn’t replaced, as he was the designated hitter and his spot in the lineup didn’t come up again.
After the game, manager Dave Roberts said that Ohtani had suffered a “little” shoulder subluxation, or dislocation. After a day off between the second and third game of the series, Ohtani was back in the lineup but collected just one hit in the final three games of the series. Even the best hitters in the world can have a few rough games but perhaps the injury was lingering more than the club let on initially. Roberts implied as much after the series was done, per Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post on X. Whatever Ohtani’s status was during those games, it’s now clear that his labrum was torn and arthroscopic surgery was necessary.
Though the injury is to Ohtani’s non-throwing arm and he is expected to recover by spring training, it could add another bit of uncertainty heading into 2025. It’s not uncommon for injury recoveries to eventually surge past estimated timelines and this isn’t the only thing Ohtani will be working back from. He underwent UCL surgery late in 2023 and didn’t pitch at all in 2024.
Though he was limited to a designated hitter role in 2024, he still had an elite season. He hit 54 home runs and stole 59 bases, producing a .310/.390/.646 slash line and 181 wRC+ in the process. The Dodgers went on to win the World Series and Ohtani seems like a lock to earn another Most Valuable Player award soon.
Heading into 2025, Ohtani will be trying to get both his right elbow and left shoulder in game shape as he looks to return to being a two-way player. His mound work was probably going be limited anyway after missing an entire season. Whether this new operation adds further limitations or impacts his availability as a hitter remains to be seen. Ohtani has generally shown that it’s best not to doubt his abilities but his unprecedented career means he is always stepping into unknown territory, in a sense, since no player has ever managed his kind of double workload over an extended period of time before.
Depending on how the situation develops, it could impact the offseason for the Dodgers. They have plenty of talented arms in their theoretical 2025 rotation, including Ohtani but also Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, Landon Knack, Ben Casparius and others. Clayton Kershaw will presumably be re-signed at some point. However, most of those guys have workload or health concerns, so the club could consider offseason additions even though there’s a large number of names in it. The free agent market features Jack Flaherty, Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell and dozens of others, while the trade market could potentially have Garrett Crochet leading the pack.
Will this affect his pitching ramp-up?
It’s his non-pitching shoulder and typical recovery time is 3 to 4 months for normal humans.
Even the non-pitching shoulder is exerted while pitching, no?
Yes, but if he’s getting frequent PT, top nutrition, and possibly PRP injection treatments I don’t think it’s going to be much of an issue come early Feb.
Especially for a betting man like himself
For a labrum tear? No chance…I tore mine 15 years ago, same shoulder and still took me 12 months to have 70% range of motion swinging a golf club. I’m no Shohei, but no way 3-4 months for a labrum.
Exactly. Minimum 6 months to rebuild strength and range of motion. Some of the most painful and frustrating rehabs I’ve ever gone through.
Was it his gambling shoulder?
How can anyone still root for this guy?
Hes baseballs kevin durant.
if he stepped up his injury game he could be a Kawhi Leonard type
I guess he should of just stayed rotting with the Angels like poor Mike Trout
That’s all you got??
Quite easily
Ah yes, Neon Cop. The troll his spent years fishing for likes with his anti-Dodgers post. I would’ve thought you’d throw yourself out the nearest second story window considering the results of a week ago.
No clue who you are…yes, LA finally wins a WS, after countless billions spent in failure & after being the laughingstock of the baseball world since 1988. Enjoy it while it lasts, basement dweller. You’ll be claiming victimhood again before you know it.
I’m not even I Dodger fan, but I know you are a dirty little troll that always post nonsense in their articles. You made it your identity to be a weird obsessed troll, so don’t be mad at me for calling you out.
Neon – The Dodgers have been the laughing stock since 1988? Please, with all due respect, the Angels are a way bigger laughing stock than the Dodgers have ever been.
Yeah the Dodgers have definitely been a laughingstock, unlike the A’s, Rockies, etc.
NeonSlopp done crying into mommy’s bosom. Took him a week to recover….
What the hell is your problem? Still jealous your pathetic team didn’t sign best ever player in baseball? Wow you really are a sad person.
How can you not root for Ohtani?
Isn’t he a degenerate gambler?
Ohtani is an unbelievable baseball talent. He was never charged with a gambling crime, which isn’t necessarily indicative of the facts, but still…never charged.
So let’s say your characterization of Ohtani as a degenerate gambler is true. Should you be characterized by the worst thing you’ve ever done or by your best accomplishments?
no, but I’m sure your dad was
prov356: The same could be said of Bauer. He was never charged either but he’ll probably never play MLB again.
avenger – Bauer’s circumstances were vastly different, so no, the same can’t be said.
No, it can’t. Because Shohei was cleared of any wrongdoing. There was a full investigation into it, and Ippei. The results are widely available. And by full, I mean the FBI, the IRS, and by the LAPD, Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Anaheim PD and Newport Beach PD.
Bauer had a laundry list of issues before he beat these girls up and had his sex life exposed. The Dodgers took a risk and signed him to a short term, with opt outs deal, because nobody else wanted to touch him and he fell in their lap. Dodgers thought they could fix him by bringing him home and putting him in a winning culture and a good clubhouse, but it was one of the rare occasions that they were wrong. So while Bauer was never convicted of anything, there was more than enough public information on the guy that sealed his fate. The same people that think the FBI and IRS would for some reason give Shohei a pass and cover him for being baseballs golden child, will also call him a tax evader. Like the IRS is going to cover for a tax evader. Yeah, makes a ton of sense, don’t it. Trolls will be trolls, I guess.
Imagine thinking Ippei did all that without Ohtani’s knowledge. You can’t possibly be this naive.
Read the report. You obviously have some comprehension skills, but maybe I’m giving you too much credit here.
Great post. Took words out of my mouth. Thank you.
You’re right. It’s not possible a wealthy celebrity was taken advantage of by someone he trusted. Not to mention there was a language barrier between Shohei and other trusted parties that Ippei exploited. It is more likely that several law enforcement agencies, criminals who were caught, and media outlets collaborated to make Ippei the fall guy. Yeah, that’s it.
You realize celebrities are PROTECTED by those agencies, yes? People are truly stupid.
I don’t root for Ohtani because he clogs up the DH spot. Maybe the trajectory of Mike Trout’s career would be different if he could have DH’d 1-2x/week instead of being forced to hand it to a healthy 25yr old.
Oh you are one of those. Ok, no point in wasting my time on you. I should have listened to others on here.
It’s truly shocking how naive you people are. Yes, why would everyone want to protect their cash cow? It’s unfathomable really…
In what way? Why would these agencies protect a baseball player? Are you really that dense? You know what? Don’t even reply. Go cry somewhere else. Done with you.
Billions of dollars flowing into the American economy, you dunce. Not to mention the soft power aspects of having an international star play here. Use common sense PLEASE.
Like I said, go cry somewhere else.
Wow, you crack me up. No sense arguing with you. You are the all knowing.
Lollllllllllllllll
Exactly
LOL Neon Cop!!
You know what you can do with it Neon Cop. No more bullet points to hit. 60 game season. Post season chokers. All shoved right in the same place for the haters for a convenient storage spot. Just a hating troll if you ever were anything else.
“How can anyone still root”…I don’t know. Maybe you could start by asking the whole country of Japan? After that, we can move onto examining each individual countries feelings about Shohei Ohtani.
Because he’s the best of the best. How can you root against the MFer?
Pretty easy, did you not watch his historic season in LA, which ended in a World Series victory? Keep being a salty baby lol .
Nice slide.
That was the other arm, this must have happened elsewhere.
At the craps table?
You are assuming he placed the bet!
…..like everything, he phoned it in and Ippei was happy to take the call.
No, Cole, Rizzo, Judge and Volpe are taking all the spots at the “crap” table, or maybe it’s a bed, since that’s obviously where they like to drop excrement.
Now that’s just hurtful.
@derail76: CJ Abrams is throwing the dice at the craps table.
cole tried gambling once but his team forgot to cover the spread (bitter yankee fan joke)
Being a Dodgers fan, I know that the truth hurts sometimes, or most of the time, but not this year.
No, it’s the same arm. It was his left arm he hurt on the slide.
Thank you.
You are correct my mistake
at $2m per season – not much of a financial loss there.
TJ surgery, shoulder surgery. he’ll need to set up a new draft kings account to keep himself busy during recovery
Does anyone have the gofundme link?
Not sure he’ll be allowed to attempt 10 steals in a season moving forward, let alone 60.
Even if he didn’t get hurt, he wasn’t going to be allowed with him pitching. Sadly he won’t come close to another 50/50 season
Starting to wonder if he will end up being one of the “what-ifs” of MLB lore. He’s only in his twenties and I’m sure it won’t get better in his thirties.
Clip – He turned 30 the day after George’s birthday ;o)
Oh man, time flies. I guess this is par for the course….. at least it was for me.
I’m betting he’ll be back sooner…. oops.
You can call him the One Armed Bandit.
Good, get it fixed right now so it doesn’t linger n eat-up regular season @bats.
You really just hope the guy can get these injuries behind him completely. I’m not sure you’ll see another guy like this that can be a Cy Young dude and also an MVP candidate based solely on his offense.
Labrum surgeries can be tricky, sometimes taking a year or more before the hitter regains full function.
Lord – Maybe he will be just a pitcher next year … remember Jim Abbott?
Ohtani betting he can be starting next season. Slide with the legs next time.
He did. However, he supported himself with his left arm causing the injury.
What are the odds?
Are people seriously complaining about this man after playing through a shoulder dislocation in the World Series?
Ohtani deferred his recovery till December 2024
Ding…ding…ding…..amazing how his athleticism is beginning to disappear one injury at a time…hope the Dodgers have insurance on that contract….
Isn’t this similar to what happened to Bellinger? I’m hoping he’s ok, but Belli was never the same after a similar injury, right?
I can see him being only a pitcher next season. However when a body part is injured and the player plays thru the injury it sometimes it leads to another injury. To protect the player’s future he needs to be kept on the DL until he’s 100 percent sound.