Dodgers face difficult injury decision as Shohei Ohtani out for third straight game

The clock is officially ticking on the Dodgers to make a decision with Shohei Ohtani.

For a third straight game, the two-way star was out of the team’s lineup on Saturday as he continues to battle injuries to his left knee and right biceps — marking the first time in his Dodgers career that Ohtani hasn’t been in the lineup that long.

The question now is whether the club will finally have to relent and put Ohtani on the injured list.

Under MLB rules, injured list stints can be retroactively backdated by up to three days. That means, if Ohtani isn’t ready to play by Sunday, the Dodgers could put him on the IL and count these past three days as part of the minimum time he will be forced to miss.

Because Ohtani is classified as a two-way player, he would be subject to an absence of at least 15 days, as opposed to the 10-day minimum stint that applies to normal position players.

That could be factoring into the team’s hesitancy to make such a move for now. If Ohtani were to be put on the IL by Sunday, he wouldn’t be able to return until Sept. 18, at which point there will only be nine games remaining in their regular-season schedule.

To this point, the Dodgers haven’t placed Ohtani on the injured list for two primary reasons. 

First, he has been playing through his injuries for much of the year and didn’t appear to be impacted until a 6-for-46 stretch over his last 12 games; a slump that was punctuated by a four-strikeout performance on Wednesday in which Ohtani showed visible pain after swings during his final at-bat. To this point, the team’s contention has been that his ailments aren’t severe enough to keep him from potentially playing in the next couple weeks.

Second, is uncertainty about whether even a more extended break on the IL would get Ohtani back to 100% physically. After all, his injuries have lingered long enough that they are likely to remain issues over the remainder of the year. If his health isn’t certainly to significantly improve, there might still be benefit in giving him the extra time to keep playing as he tries to rediscover his swing.

For now, the Dodgers’ main priority is making sure Ohtani’s condition doesn’t get worse, which is why manager Dave Roberts has continued to describe his status as day to day.

For a third straight day, that meant keeping Ohtani out of the lineup.

When he might return remains to be seen.

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