Shohei Ohtani Reveals He Is Focused On Hitting Now; Unlikely To Pitch Again This Season
Shohei Ohtani is dealing with some injuries that have kept him off the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but lately, his hitting has not been great.
With Ohtani reporting some discomfort in his right biceps and neck after a four-strikeout game on Wednesday, the Dodgers gave him four days off. In that time, the team has reportedly decided that it’s unlikely he will pitch again this season.
“I’m going to be focusing on hitting moving forward,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton on Monday, per The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya.
Ohtani has a 1.79 ERA through 14 starts this year, so the Dodgers are actually losing a very valuable arm. He has gone at least six innings in 13 of his starts, but at this point, his offense is more valuable to the team. The injuries that had kept him off the mound were starting to impact his swing, and a throwing progression was clearly not helping that.
Shohei Ohtani Reveals He Is Focused
“I think the thing that I was more focused on was making sure that the pitching wouldn’t cause the worse scenario, which was for me to not be able to play at all,” Ohtani said.
Had Ohtani continued to try to get back on the mound, he may have worsened matters and been out for the postseason entirely. Now, he can focus on getting back to being an elite hitter and jhelp the Dodgers three-peat. He was the MVP frontrunner a few weeks ago, but his offensive slump has hurt him in the rankings. He still has a .902 OPS and 30 homers, but that’s a down year for him. Perhaps the focus on only hitting will help him get back into form.
“I’m confident that my overall performance should be better moving forward,” Ohtani said.
More MLB: Aaron Judge Returns As Yankees’ World Series Hopes Surge
Discover more from NAIRAVOICE.COM.NG
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.