Shohei Ohtani not likely to pitch again in 2026, per Dodgers manager Dave Roberts

Shohei Ohtani is not expected to throw another pitch in a big league game in 2026 — regular season or postseason — after Dodgers manager Dave Roberts all but said so while speaking with Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register and other reporters.

What happened

Roberts did not use the word "officially" when addressing Ohtani's pitching status, but he left little interpretive room. Per MLB Trade Rumors, Roberts pointed reporters toward the calendar and toward how little Ohtani had thrown in the preceding week, adding that he thought everyone could do the math. The math, as Roberts framed it, points toward a pitching shutdown for the remainder of the year.

The underlying issues, per the report, are right knee discomfort and a sore right biceps. Ohtani reportedly has not thrown since a bullpen session on August 28, which was intended as the final preparatory step before he started the Dodgers' game against the Tigers the following Sunday in an opener role — a one-inning assignment designed to begin gradually rebuilding his arm strength over increasingly longer stints of game action. That plan did not come to pass, and per MLB Trade Rumors, nothing has followed that August 28 session.

On the hitting side, the picture is somewhat more optimistic: per the report, Ohtani may return to the lineup as the designated hitter as soon as Monday.

Why it matters

The operational weight here is considerable. The original plan, per MLB Trade Rumors, was not simply to get Ohtani back on the mound for a cameo — it was to use a graduated return as a platform for building him into a postseason pitching option. A one-inning opener role was the entry point, with the expectation that workload would expand from there. That pathway, per Roberts' comments, is now effectively closed for 2026.

What Los Angeles retains is Ohtani the hitter, which is hardly a consolation prize, but it does reshape how the Dodgers think about their October rotation depth. The club has been navigating a crowded injury picture in recent days. A week removed from the Dodgers weighing a potential IL placement for Ohtani after he had missed three consecutive games, the roster has required active management heading into the final stretch of the regular season. Dalton Rushing was placed on the 10-day injured list with right elbow discomfort stemming from a partial UCL tear, adding another name to a list that has grown longer as September has arrived.

Bobby Miller, meanwhile, was activated from the 60-day IL for his 2026 debut after rehabbing a shoulder injury at Triple-A — a move the club made earlier this week. Whether Miller factors into postseason pitching plans is a question the available material does not answer, but his return does add an arm to a staff now operating without Ohtani on the mound.

It is worth understanding the roster mechanics in general terms: under league rules, two-way players are subject to the 15-day injured list rather than the 10-day version available to position players. Any formal designation for Ohtani would carry its own timeline and 40-man roster implications. No such move has been reported as of this writing, and Roberts' comments, carefully worded as they were, do not constitute a club announcement.

The numbers

The Dodgers carry an 85-57 record (.599), sit first in the NL West, and hold a division magic number of 10. They have won three straight.

Where the club stands

At 85-57, Los Angeles leads the NL West with a magic number of 10 and arrives at this moment on a three-game winning streak. The schedule ahead offers a three-game home series against the Cincinnati Reds at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium. Monday's probable pitchers are listed as TBD for Los Angeles against Chase Burns for Cincinnati — which is precisely where the question of Ohtani's DH availability becomes immediately relevant. Tuesday features Tarik Skubal against Nick Lodolo, and Wednesday has Yoshinobu Yamamoto lined up against Rhett Lowder.

A magic number of 10 means the Dodgers are close enough to clinching that the remaining regular-season games carry more postseason-preparation weight than standings urgency. That context makes the pitching-shutdown news sting a little differently: the club is almost certainly going to October; the question is what the pitching staff looks like when it gets there.

What we don't know yet

Roberts' comments, as reported by MLB Trade Rumors, stopped deliberately short of a formal announcement. He did not use the word "officially," and the report preserves that hedge. Whether the Dodgers formalize Ohtani's pitching status — through an IL placement, a roster designation, or a club statement — has not been reported.

Ohtani's availability as a DH is described in the report as a possibility for Monday, not a certainty. Whether the right knee discomfort and sore right biceps place any limitations on his hitting workload — frequency, lineup position, or otherwise — is not addressed in the material. Four consecutive games out of the starting lineup is the last concrete data point the reporting provides heading into this series.

The question of what a Dodgers postseason rotation looks like without Ohtani on the mound is one the club has not yet addressed publicly, at least not in material available here.

What to watch

The most immediate question is whether Ohtani appears in Monday's lineup against the Reds. Per the report, that is the earliest plausible return date in a DH capacity, and his presence or absence will be the first concrete data point following Roberts' comments.

Beyond Monday, the Dodgers' rotation management over the final weeks of the regular season takes on added significance. With Ohtani's mound work reportedly off the table, how the club sequences its starters — and whether Miller's return factors into any postseason planning — will be worth tracking as the magic number winds down.

Roberts' careful non-announcement also leaves open the possibility, however slim, that circumstances change. He did not say the door is permanently closed; he said the calendar and the workload data make the conclusion fairly obvious. Those are not quite the same thing, even if they point in the same direction.