Shohei Ohtani dealing with two nagging injuries as Dodgers consider IL stint

The Los Angeles Dodgers are considering placing Shohei Ohtani on the injured list as the superstar manages two nagging injuries, per CBS Sports. No move has been announced, and the situation carries genuine uncertainty — this is a club weighing options, not one that has made a decision.

What happened

Per CBS Sports, Ohtani is dealing with two nagging injuries, and the Dodgers are mulling an IL stint in response. The report notes that Ohtani went hitless in four plate appearances with four strikeouts on Wednesday and has not looked like himself recently. Whether that performance is a symptom, a coincidence, or simply a rough afternoon is not something the report establishes — but the framing suggests the club is paying attention to more than the box score.

The word "considering" is doing real work here. This is not a club announcement. It is not a transaction. It is a front office with a decision in front of it, and CBS Sports reporting that the decision exists.

Why it matters

Ohtani is not a player whose absence registers as a minor roster footnote. He is the gravitational center of the Dodgers' lineup, and any stretch without him — even a short one — changes the arithmetic of how Los Angeles constructs its offense on a given night.

The timing adds a layer of operational texture. The Dodgers are in the final weeks of the regular season, a stretch when clubs are simultaneously protecting players for October and trying to hold their footing in the standings. Those two goals do not always point in the same direction, and the IL conversation reportedly underway is exactly the kind of calculation that defines September baseball.

Under general league rules, Ohtani — as a two-way player — would be subject to the 15-day IL rather than the 10-day IL available to position players. That means any stint, if it happens, would carry a minimum absence of 15 days. The Dodgers' September expanded roster does give the club more flexibility to cover at-bats while managing his workload, but a 15-day window is not nothing when the calendar is already counting down.

Is Ohtani expected to play Thursday?

Per CBS Sports, the Dodgers are considering an IL stint, which means his availability for Thursday's home game against the St. Louis Cardinals is, at minimum, an open question. The probable pitchers listed for that game are Tarik Skubal for Los Angeles and Quinn Mathews for St. Louis. Whether Ohtani is in the lineup behind Skubal is something the club has not, per available reporting, addressed publicly.

Where the club stands

Los Angeles sits at 84-57 (.596), first in the NL West, riding a two-game winning streak, with a division magic number of 12. That is a comfortable position by most measures, and it is precisely the kind of cushion that makes a short IL stint for a banged-up superstar feel more manageable than it would in a tighter race. The Dodgers are not scrambling for wins right now. They are managing toward October.

The upcoming home schedule features the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday, followed by the Washington Nationals on Friday and Saturday. The probable pitchers for those games are Blake Snell against Jackson Kent on Friday and Tyler Glasnow against Cade Cavalli on Saturday.

That is a stretch of games against teams not currently threatening Los Angeles's postseason position, which matters when you are deciding whether now is the moment to give your best player a mandated rest. The schedule does not always cooperate with injury management, but this particular window is about as cooperative as September gets.

The two-game winning streak and the division lead suggest the Dodgers are not in crisis mode. They are in optimization mode — and the reported IL conversation fits that posture. A club fighting for its playoff life does not have the luxury of sitting its best player for two weeks. A club with a magic number of 12 and a home series against Washington on the horizon has a little more room to think.

What we don't know yet

CBS Sports reports that the Dodgers are considering an IL stint, but the report does not specify the nature of either injury, which body parts are involved, how long Ohtani has been managing them, or what the internal timetable looks like. This is a credible, sourced report — but it is not a certainty, and the club has not spoken publicly to the specifics.

We do not know whether the club will ultimately place Ohtani on the IL or opt for a different approach — a scheduled day off, a lighter workload, or simply monitoring the situation through the next series. We do not know whether Wednesday's hitless outing with four strikeouts was directly connected to the injuries or whether it was the kind of bad day that visits every hitter over a long season. The report notes he has not looked like himself recently, but "recently" is not a timeline and "not like himself" is an observation, not a diagnosis.

The specific IL designation — should a move happen — also remains unreported. General league rules distinguish between the 10-day IL for position players and the 15-day IL for two-way players, but which category would apply to Ohtani in this context, and whether the club might consider a 60-day IL that would affect the 40-man roster count, are questions the report does not answer.

What to watch

The most immediate thing to monitor is whether the Dodgers make a roster move before or around Thursday's game against St. Louis. If Ohtani is absent from the lineup without an accompanying transaction, that would suggest the club is managing him informally for now. If a transaction appears, the nature of the IL designation will tell you something about how seriously the organization views the timeline.

Beyond the immediate roster question, watch how the Dodgers construct their lineup over the next several days. A club that is quietly managing a superstar's workload will show it in the lineup card before it shows it in a press release. And with a magic number of 12 and a postseason berth that appears well within reach, the Dodgers have both the incentive and the standing room to be careful.

The September expanded roster — which allows 28 active players from September 1 through the end of the regular season — gives Los Angeles more options to cover at-bats than it would have had a week ago. That flexibility does not make the decision easier, but it does make the consequences of a short IL stint less operationally disruptive than they might otherwise be.

Per CBS Sports, the conversation is happening. The decision, as of this report, has not been made.