Mookie Betts Can Relate To Shohei Ohtani’s Struggles

Much has been made about Shohei Ohtani’s offensive struggles as the Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves on the brink of elimination against the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series.

It’s no secret that Ohtani has been ravaged by multiple injuries for most of the second half of the season. The two-way star has attempted to play through them, but he clearly doesn’t look like the same player at the plate.

Mookie Betts is all too familiar with what Ohtani is going through. The eight-time All-Star was in the midst of an excellent 2024 season before suffering a left hand fracture on a hit by pitch. Betts would eventually return, but his production never returned to its previous level.

The four-time World Series champion managed to stay healthy for the majority of the 2025 and 2026 seasons, but it wasn’t until the second half of this year that he started hitting again to his standards. That came after Betts worked tirelessly to get his swing right for the first time in nearly two years.

“It’s really, really hard,” Betts said of Ohtani trying to make several adjustments on the fly during the postseason. “It took me almost, like, two years before I was able to really kind of feel normal again and get those bad habits out. When you’re hurt, you just want to play.

“So you’ll make adjustments to the swing or to your body so you can play. Then you don’t want to hurt while you play, so you make the adjustments to where your body doesn’t feel it. Sometimes it’s to the detriment of who you are as a player, and you don’t really realize it.

“I couldn’t imagine really kind of having the expectations that he has and falling short in a way that it’s not normal for him. Then having to come back and be present in this postseason knowing how important he is to the boys. He’s trying. It’s just really, really hard.

“It’s really hard to make these slight adjustments in this short amount of time. Like I said, it took me almost two years. I feel for him. I know he’s grinding, he’s working. So we’ll just see. But I know he’s giving it his all. We know he’s giving it his all. We can at least lay our heads on a pillow at night knowing that we’ve given it everything.”

In seven playoff games this year, Ohtani is batting just .182/.333/.182 with four walks and seven strikeouts across 28 plate appearances. He hasn’t homered since Aug. 18 and only has one RBI over his last 25 games.

Shohei Ohtani remained in Dodgers lineup

After considering sitting, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts kept the four-time MVP in the Dodgers lineup for Game 3 of the NLCS on Wednesday night. The decision stemmed from Ohtani insisting that he was healthy enough to keep playing.

Ohtani went 1-for-2 with a walk and hit by pitch in the Dodgers’ 6-2 loss to the Brewers. He hit the ball hard in both of his at-bats and continued to find ways to get on base.