Shohei Ohtani’s two-way season is probably over before it ever reached the finish line.

He got asked Monday night whether he expects to pitch again this season, Ohtani answered through his interpreter:

Most likely, no.

That’s a huge blow for the Dodgers, even if it doesn’t completely derail them. Ohtani wasn’t just a designated hitter who could occasionally take the mound. He was one of Los Angeles’ best hitters, one of their best starting pitchers and a roster advantage no other contender could match.

Now, the Dodgers will likely have only one version of him in October. Their pitching depth is good enough to keep them in the championship conversation, and they might still have baseball’s best rotation without him. But surviving the loss isn’t the same as replacing everything Ohtani brought to the team.

The Dodgers Finally Got the Full Ohtani — Then Lost Half of Him

The Dodgers already won a World Series with Ohtani only hitting in 2024, so it’d be easy to shrug this off. They’ve done it before. And with a rotation that has more legitimate October starters than most teams have healthy starters, period, they should be able to survive losing Ohtani on the mound.

But that doesn’t mean this is the same team it was a year ago.

Ohtani came back to pitch in 2025 and eventually became a huge part of what the Dodgers were in October. His overall postseason pitching numbers weren’t perfect — he went 2-1 with a 4.43 ERA in 20 1/3 innings — but the upside showed up when Los Angeles needed it most. In the game that clinched the National League Championship Series, he threw six scoreless innings, struck out 10, and hit three home runs.

It was the kind of performance that made every description of Ohtani sound incomplete. “Ace starter” and “middle-of-the-order bat” still didn’t really cover it. He's truly an anomoly out there.

The 2026 season was supposed to make that feel less like a once-in-a-lifetime October moment and more like something the Dodgers could actually plan around.

Ohtani made 14 starts before he was yanked from the mound on July 3rd. He went 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA, 95 strikeouts, and 26 walks in 85 2/3 innings. Opponents hit .180 against him, and his 0.95 WHIP was right there with Tyler Glasnow’s 0.88 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s 0.90.

Those weren’t gimmick innings. Ohtani was averaging a little more than six innings per start and pitching well enough to put himself in the Cy Young conversation before his body started pushing back. If the postseason had started in July, Dave Roberts wouldn’t have been asking whether Ohtani could handle an October start. He’d have been figuring out whether to give him the first or the second game.

The Dodgers Chose the Version of Ohtani They Can't Afford to Lose

Left knee soreness was what first kept Ohtani off the mound. Then a late-July bullpen session didn’t go well, so the Dodgers shut down his throwing program. He started playing catch again on Aug. 8th, threw 34 pitches in a bullpen session a week later and was supposed to face live hitters next. But another bullpen session on Aug. 28th left him feeling less than 100 percent.

At this point, there just isn’t enough time for him to get his arm ready for October. He hasn’t pitched in a game in more than two months.

Trying to force it could put the one thing the Dodgers absolutely need from him at risk: his bat.

That’s really the choice here. The Dodgers aren’t giving up pitching because Ohtani might provide a fun little bonus on the mound. They’re giving up an ace-level starter because his MVP bat isn't worth risking.

Ohtani’s Missing Innings Will Reshape the Dodgers’ October Roster

The easiest part of Ohtani’s value is obvious: He hits home runs and gets big-league hitters out. The roster advantage starts to show up a little more in October.

A postseason roster has 26 players and can include no more than 13 traditional pitchers. A qualified two-way player doesn’t count against that pitching limit. So when Ohtani’s healthy, Dave Roberts gets another starting pitcher without having to sacrifice a bench bat, pinch-runner, defensive replacement, or third catcher.

The Dodgers used that flexibility during last year’s postseason run. They carried 15 position players and only 11 traditional pitchers in the Wild Card Series and Division Series. Ohtani gave them a 12th pitching option with his separate two-way roster spot. That let them protect themselves against injuries and still start Ohtani on the mound while keeping his bat in the lineup after he was done pitching.

If Ohtani only hits this October, the roster will still call him a two-way player. But that extra spot won’t really be doing anything.

The Dodgers will need a regular pitcher to cover every inning Ohtani was supposed to handle. That means another starter or long reliever has to take up a normal roster spot.

One Missing Start Changes More Than One Game

His absence also takes away some of the Dodgers’ flexibility once a series gets going.

With Ohtani on the mound, Roberts could set up his rotation around matchups instead of just lining up his starters and hoping for the best. He’d have three high-end right-handers in Ohtani, Yamamoto, and Tyler Glasnow, along with three dangerous lefties in Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell, and Justin Wrobleski. He could give a right-handed lineup something different or use one starter for bulk innings behind another without immediately draining the bullpen.

The Dodgers still have plenty of options. They just don’t have quite as much room for things to go sideways.

One bad start matters more now. So does one injury. A pitcher like Emmet Sheehan or Roki Sasaki could go from being a fringe roster decision to taking meaningful innings in October, which isn’t exactly the kind of promotion a team wants to be planning for.

And it's not like the bullpen's been so good that the Dodgers should be eager to get there early. Los Angeles relievers have a 3.96 ERA and have converted 42 of 62 save opportunities. Roberts has plenty of big names to choose from, but the $69 million bet on Edwin Díaz ended up bringing an 11.85 ERA over 13 2/3 innings before he landed on the injured list.

Ohtani was averaging more than six innings per start. Even one start in a five-game series could’ve saved Roberts from asking his middle relievers to cover six or nine extra outs. Two starts in a seven-game series could’ve changed how aggressively he used his best relievers in every other game.

Postseason teams need ways to survive when the plan falls apart. Two-way Ohtani gave the Dodgers one more answer before the series even started.

The Dodgers Still Need Their Star

The Dodgers are 87-57, they’re up 10 1/2 games in the National League West, and they’re chasing a third straight World Series title. So, no, this isn’t exactly a crisis. Especially not after they went out and added Tarik Skubal.

But their original plan was still better.

They were supposed to head into October with a leadoff hitter who could change a game at the plate and give them 6+ innings on the mound. Now they’re hoping that taking pitching off Ohtani’s plate will help get the hitter back to being himself.

That’s the right call. It’s also a pretty good reminder that there was never anything normal about building a postseason plan around Shohei Ohtani doing two jobs at once.

They can replace his innings. They can’t really replace the extra roster spot, the flexibility, or the feeling that every series started with an advantage nobody else was allowed to have.

October will probably get half of Shohei Ohtani. For the Dodgers, the whole season might come down to whether that half can start looking whole again.

All stats courtesy of MLB.com.

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