A heart-stopping moment occurred for Dodgers fans in the bottom of the seventh inning tonight when Shohei Ohtani attempted to steal second base. Ohtani was tagged out by Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres but appeared to suffer an injury on the play and was escorted off the field by a team trainer. After the game, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya) that Ohtani had suffered a “little” shoulder subluxation, or partial dislocation. The star will undergo additionally testing tomorrow, and though Roberts emphasized that he did not want to speculate on the severity of the injury until those tests were completed, he noted that they’re “encouraged” by initial tests and that he’s “expecting” Ohtani to be back in the lineup for Game 3 on Monday.
It’s a potentially devastating blow to the Dodgers as they look to capture their first full-season World Series championship since 1988. While Ohtani has been unable to pitch this year after undergoing elbow surgery last September, it’s impossible to call his first season with the club anything other than an absolute success. The 30-year-old superstar slashed an eye-popping .310/.390/.646 (181 wRC+) in 159 games for the Dodgers this year and became the first player in MLB history to steal at least 50 bases (59) and hit at least 50 home runs (54) in a single season. Ohtani’s dynamic play has also been a key factor in the club’s postseason run to this point, as he had slashed an impressive .277/.414/.489 with three home runs and ten RBI during the playoffs this year entering tonight’s game.
Whether the Dodgers will have that explosive offensive talent in the lineup for the remainder of the series remains to be seen. While the severity of Ohtani’s injury is not currently clear, an injury of any significance will leave he and the Dodgers forced to balance the star’s health with their goal of closing out a World Series championship they’re just two victories away from clinching. Other players on the Dodgers’ roster, including fellow star Freddie Freeman and veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas, have played through injuries this postseason in hopes of bringing a World Series home to Los Angeles. If the Dodgers take a similar course of action with Ohtani and his shoulder issue is fairly mild, it’s possible to imagine him being back in the club’s lineup when the series moves to New York for Game 3 on Monday night.
That’s far from a guarantee, however, and it’s equally easy to imagine the issue being severe enough to leave Ohtani at risk of missing the rest of the series. If the injury proves to be severe enough for the Dodgers to remove Ohtani from their playoff roster, outfielders Kevin Kiermaier and James Outman would appear to be the most likely options for the club to consider activating in place of their superstar on the playoff roster. Meanwhile, Ohtani vacating the DH spot in the lineup would allow the club to offer additional rest to Freeman, who has played through the postseason on a sprained ankle and could benefit from the additional time off his feet. In such a scenario, Max Muncy would likely slide over from third base to cover first for Freeman, opening up the hot corner for Enrique Hernandez and second base for Gavin Lux.
Of course, with just five months left to Opening Day 2025, a particularly severe injury could not only leave Ohtani unavailable for the remainder of the World Series but potentially impact his Spring Training and readiness for the start of next year. Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story underwent what was believed to be season-ending shoulder surgery back in April following an initial diagnosis similar to Ohtani’s after Story awkwardly landed on his shoulder during a play in the field. Surgery wound up being necessary due to structural damage in his shoulder and came with an initial six-month recovery timeline, though Story managed to return ahead of schedule in just five.
The Dodgers are quite familiar with the perils of dislocated shoulders, as during the 2020 NLCS Cody Bellinger suffered a dislocated right shoulder that he played through in their last World Series run but ultimately required surgery on. That procedure came with a recovery timeline of just ten weeks but Bellinger infamously struggled badly over his next two seasons with the Dodgers, leading to questions regarding whether or not he returned to action before he was fully healthy. However severe Ohtani’s injury turns out to be, one silver lining for the Dodgers is that Ohtani’s left shoulder is the one at issue, meaning his pitching arm is likely to be minimally impacted by the issue as he looks toward a return to the mound in 2025.