Dodgers To Place Shohei Ohtani On 15-Day IL

After being in and out of the lineup over the past week, Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani is landing on the injured list, manager Dave Roberts told reporters last night. Ohtani has been working through knee and arm injuries. Given his two-way status, he’s required to go on the 15-day IL for pitchers, not the 10-day IL for position players.

The Dodgers waited as long as they could to make the move, which isn’t official yet. L.A. is off today and will likely make the transaction official ahead of Friday’s game in Miami. Ohtani sat out four straight games to close last week. He was back in the lineup on Monday, going 0-for-3 with a strikeout. He returned to the bench the past two games.

“I think that if it were a postseason game tomorrow, he would be in the lineup,” Roberts said, relayed by Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. “I think that now you’re talking about two weeks, 14 days. I feel that that’s substantial. He’ll be in a much better place than he was today.”

Ohtani hasn’t pitched since early July due to a knee injury. Plans for him to return to the mound were recently scrapped. Roberts mentioned that the main concern is currently Ohtani’s right biceps, which bothered him during an at-bat on Monday. Ohtani was going to play on Wednesday before telling the team about the biceps issue.

With his IL stint backdated to Monday, Ohtani could return for L.A.’s second-to-last series of the year, a three-game set against the Padres. The Dodgers close the regular season with three games in San Francisco. Assuming a minimum stay on the IL, Ohtani could see a few games of action before heading into the postseason.

“Is it going to be 100 percent? Probably not,” Roberts said. “But I do think that with this time that we’re taking now, he’ll be in an adequate spot to finish the season.”

The Dodgers are expected to promote prospect Josue De Paula to take Ohtani’s spot. His defensive ability is a question mark, but the club is ready to see what he can do against major league pitching. Roberts said De Paula will handle the “lion’s share” of the at-bats at DH with Ohtani out (h/t Katie Woo of The Athletic).

The 21-year-old De Paula is the consensus top prospect in the Dodgers system. He’s hit .302 with 26 homers and 31 stolen bases at Double-A this year. It’s rare for Los Angeles to move a player this quickly. De Paula will completely skip Triple-A after playing 127 games at Double-A.