The Los Angeles Dodgers have a unique ‘problem’, in employing the greatest player of this generation, Shohei Ohtani. Tuesday night’s game against the Miami Marlins highlighted this particular issue, as Ohtani pitched six innings, holding the Marlins to two runs. The Dodgers offense sans Ohtani mustered just one run, and the Marlins went on to win the game.
When asked about his decision to have Ohtani out of the lineup on days he pitches, Manager Dave Roberts had this to say –
“I don’t think that is going to play in my math. I think the main thing is to do right by Shohei,” Roberts said. “Even without him tonight in the lineup, we should’ve won the game. I feel good about it. I’d do the same thing again.”
The beauty of having someone like Ohtani is that even when he is ‘out of sync’ with his pitching, he still gives your team more than a chance to win. And the beauty of having a lineup like the Dodgers is that they should be able to be able to score three or more runs without Ohtani in the lineup. It just so happened that on Tuesday night, the offense didn’t do their job.
The MO of the Dodgers front office has always been to look at the long-term picture for both players and the team. And if the Dodgers want to three-peat as World Champs, Ohtani obviously plays a big role in getting them there.
MLB’s Sonja Chen covers more details of Ohtani’s outing here.
Bill Plunkett of the OC Register covers more of the minutiae of handling a two-way player through the bulk of the season to have him healthy when you need him more, in the playoffs.
“I’m always going to respect the decision, regardless whether I’m pitching or doing both,” Ohtani said. “I also understand the importance of getting to the end of the season with everybody healthy. So talking with the training staff, talking with the team, I think it’s really important that the team makes the decision on what’s good for the team.”
We are about a month away from Blake Snell returning to the starting rotation and that would give the Dodgers seven starting pitchers. Could the Dodgers do something crazy like go to a seven-man rotation? That would definitely give each starter plenty of time to recover between outings.
No, I am not seriously thinking the Dodgers front office would do this. But the beauty of having a team like the Dodgers is you have the flexibility to do things other teams can only dream of.