Photo by Israel Torres on Pexels
In a development that sends a shudder through the baseball world and every front office that has tried to model a two-way star, Shohei Ohtani was scratched from his scheduled Friday pitching start and will miss next week’s All-Star Game — the latest chapter in a career defined as much by transcendent brilliance as by the stubborn, recurring price of doing the impossible. The Los Angeles Dodgers announced the move with characteristic brevity, citing “continued irritation” in Ohtani’s left knee, the same joint that absorbs explosive torque every time he drives toward home plate as a pitcher and then again each time he rotates as a hitter.
This is not an oblique tweak that will heal with a few days of rest, nor a blister that merely delays a bullpen session. The left knee is Ohtani’s landing leg: the pillar that must hold steady as he unleashes a 98-mile-an-hour fastball, and the base from which he generates the ferocious bat speed that has produced 38 home runs and a 1.054 OPS this season. Irritation in that joint is the equivalent of a crack in a skyscraper’s foundation — it may not bring the building down immediately, but it changes every calculation about how much weight it can bear.
The Knee That Changed the Calendar
According to the Dodgers’ medical staff, the irritation arose early in the week and did not respond to conservative treatment. Ohtani took batting practice on Thursday but did not throw, and after the final examination Friday morning, the decision was made to pull him from his scheduled start against the Arizona Diamondbacks and to withdraw his name from the All-Star Game roster, which will be held July 14 at Globe Life Field. The team described the move as precautionary, but the word “continued” in their statement carries a more ominous undertone: this is not a fresh injury; it is an old issue that has refused to quiet down.
The timing could not be worse — or, from one perspective, better. The Dodgers enter the All-Star break with a 58-32 record, the best in the National League, and Ohtani has been the undisputed MVP frontrunner, slashing .312/.425/.629 while also going 12-5 with a 2.88 ERA in 20 starts. Losing him for any extended stretch could turn a commanding division lead into a battle. But if the All-Star break offers a built-in week of rest, the team may be gambling that a full five-day shutdown will reset the knee enough for the second-half push. The problem is that Ohtani is not merely a pitcher who can be skipped once. Every start he misses puts additional strain on a rotation that has already lost Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a shoulder issue and has seen Tyler Glasnow’s workload carefully managed.
When the Unicorn Injures the Same Leg Twice
Historical precedent offers little comfort because there is no precedent for what Ohtani does. Babe Ruth, the only other player to excel both as a pitcher and everyday hitter over a meaningful stretch, abandoned the mound entirely after 1919, citing a combination of fatigue and the sheer inefficiency of managing both roles. Ruth was 24 when he essentially chose hitting. Ohtani is now 31 — the same age at which many elite pitchers begin to see the first wrinkles of decline — and he is still attempting to carry the full workload that generated 10.0 WAR in 2024 and a $700 million contract.
What makes this episode particularly unsettling is that it involves the left knee, which Ohtani had never surgically addressed until a cleanup procedure in October 2023 to remove a bone spur. That operation was considered minor and was performed in conjunction with his right elbow UCL repair, but the knee has remained a persistent low-grade irritant. In spring training this year, Ohtani was occasionally held out of back-to-back starts as a precaution, and he admitted in April that the knee “gets stiff after I sit in the dugout for a long inning.” The irritation now appears to have graduated from annoyance to functional limitation, which is why the decision was made to scratch rather than simply push the start back a day.
A League’s Most Singular Loss
The All-Star Game without Shohei Ohtani is like a symphony without a conductor. The event was built partly around his star power — he had already been elected by fans as the starting designated hitter and was expected to pitch an inning in the midsummer showcase for the fourth consecutive year. His absence will be the most notable since Mike Trout missed the 2021 game with a calf strain, but Trout’s value is concentrated in one dimension. Ohtani is the only player who can fill two roster spots and create two distinct moments of anticipation in a single night. Television ratings historically spike during his plate appearances and pitching innings, and Major League Baseball will now have to rework its promotional package for the prime-time game.
For Dodgers fans — and for the neutral baseball audience — the letdown is layered. Ohtani’s presence in Arlington would have been the headliner of a loaded National League squad that also includes Bryce Harper, Ronald Acuña Jr., and rookie sensation Jackson Holliday. Instead, manager Dave Roberts will have to select a replacement DH, and the National League will lose its most compelling pitcher in an exhibition that has been criticized in recent years for lacking competitive intensity. More than pageantry, however, the real loss is the data point: each All-Star Game appearance serves as a health benchmark. Ohtani’s absence at the break implies that his body needed rest even before the second half begins, a worrisome signal for a team whose October ambitions depend on his endurance.
What the Second Half Holds for the Dodgers and Ohtani
The immediate question is how the Dodgers will structure Ohtani’s workload coming out of the break. Before this flare-up, he had been on a roughly once-a-week pitching schedule with an average of 95 pitches per start, a slight reduction from the 100-pitch norm earlier in his career. The team has already built in extra rest days for him, skipping his turn twice this season to manage the cumulative load. But if the knee irritation requires a longer shutdown — say, three weeks without throwing — the Dodgers would face a strategic nightmare: do they shut him down as a pitcher entirely for the remainder of the regular season and use him solely as a DH, or do they try to rehab him on a compressed timeline to ensure he is available for the playoffs?
There is no easy answer because the role itself creates a conflict. As a hitter, Ohtani generates rotational force through his left hip and knee; as a pitcher, he loads that same leg to drive toward the plate. Every swing he takes in the interim is a potential aggravation to the knee, but asking him to stop hitting would neuter the lineup’s centerpiece. The Dodgers have the depth to survive a brief absence — Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, and Mookie Betts provide a formidable core — but no team can replace a player who is simultaneously its best hitter and best pitcher. The more significant development here might be what this means for the 2026 postseason: the Dodgers are built to win now, and Ohtani’s contract runs through 2033. If the knee becomes a chronic issue, the organization may have to decide whether to preserve his hitting at the expense of his pitching, a trade-off that would fundamentally alter the calculus of the largest free-agent contract in North American sports history.
Editorial Note: This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by the Celloraa editorial team for accuracy and clarity. It is intended for informational purposes only. Read our Editorial Policy.
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