Originally published by DodgerBlue.com
The Los Angeles Dodgers welcomed back Shohei Ohtani for the first time in just over two weeks ahead of their game against the San Diego Padres on Wednesday.
Ohtani spent the minimum amount of time on the 15-day injured list with an official designation of right biceps inflammation, though Ohtani had also been dealing with overall arm trouble in addition to left knee soreness.
Ohtani played an extended stretch of the season with the health issues and started to become compromised at the plate. He initially didn’t report the full extent of his injuries as a way to remain in the lineup, but that ended up doing more harm than good.
“Obviously, he was dealing with a lot of things that were challenging for him,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said of Ohtani. “When that’s happening, one, you end up making subconscious adjustments where you’re protecting yourself. There’s just a slight kind of degradation as that’s happening that compounds over time.
“And the other is — we’ve talked about this a lot — every time we’ve ever gone to Shohei about a day off or when he’s going to pitch and within these days, or where he hits in the lineup, his answer every single time has been whatever it takes to help the team win. It legitimately has been that every single time. Now, with that, he’s not always the best reporter of how he feels.
“Freddie is the same way, Clayton Kershaw. I’ve been around a lot of these guys that they feel their job is to be out there to help the team however they can, and sometimes will downplay some things that are bothering them. But again, it’s because he wants to help the team win.
“But yeah, I think there’s no question it affected him. And I think the fact that he feels as good as he does right now, it’s certainly encouraging. Now it’s about making sure that holds.”
Friedman understands Ohtani’s competitive drive and desire to play every game, but hopes he is more open to sharing his injuries going forward.
“I’ve been around way more guys that are less forthcoming about how they feel because they want to be out there and help their team,” Friedman began. “I don’t have a ton of experience with guys who are like, ‘Hey, this is kind of bothering me.’ The over-sharers, I have way less experience with those guys. But yeah, I think it is important.
“What he is doing is unprecedented and it takes a real toll. As you get older, I think us just being very dialed is going to be really important. We certainly had a lot of communication with him throughout the year, and worked together really well in terms of how to go about this. I think in his mind, he just thought that what he was dealing with was more minor. Because it wasn’t like he would see a doctor and it was, ‘Oh my God, you have this ailment.’ It was just a number of different things that were bothering him, and I think in his mind, he felt the best way to go out and help the team was to play. Which I respect.
“But, us staying really connected and sharing that information, I think will be really important going forward. Again, the communication back and forth has been awesome. The fully sharing exactly how he’s feeling, maybe not as awesome. But again, I would rather that with a guy than the other side of that. It’s just something that we talked about a couple years ago, there’s no playbook for this. It’s not like Doc can draw from experience, or I can draw from experience of, ‘Oh yeah, when we dealt with this.’ So it’s unprecedented for all of us and we’re kind of feeling our way through it together.
“To the extent we can keep learning and growing year over year, it will put us in the best position for him to continue doing both for as far as we can see out.”
Dodgers’ plan for Shohei Ohtani
Ohtani went 1-for-4 with a walk in his return to the Dodgers lineup on Wednesday. Given that he wasn’t able to take any live at-bats during his time on the injured list, the plan is for Ohtani to play every game through the end of the regular season to ensure he gets enough reps for the playoffs.
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