Shohei Ohtani out for third straight game as Dodgers weigh IL stint

Shohei Ohtani is out of the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup for a third consecutive game, and the club is now weighing whether to place him on the injured list, MLB.com's Sonja Chen reported.

What happened

The absence has been building across the better part of a week. Per earlier reporting, Ohtani missed Thursday's game with neck and right biceps problems, and he has not appeared in the lineup since. The Dodgers have not announced a diagnosis, a timetable, or a formal roster move — the IL decision remains under consideration, not settled.

It is worth keeping the injury picture in its proper layers. Ohtani has not pitched since July 3 due to a right knee issue, per prior reporting, meaning his absence from the mound predates this week's concerns by roughly two months. The current situation — neck and right biceps — is separate from the knee, and the two threads are running concurrently without any reported connection between them.

As a two-way player, Ohtani would be subject to the 15-day injured list under general league rules, rather than the 10-day IL that applies to position players. That distinction matters for roster planning in a way that a one-line transaction note might not immediately convey: a 15-day clock is a longer commitment, and any placement would need to be weighed against the club's September depth and the calendar pressing toward October.

Why it matters

The Dodgers are 84-57 and sitting on a division magic number of 12, so the NL West title is not in immediate jeopardy. But September is when roster decisions carry playoff implications, and a club does not spend multiple days weighing an IL stint for its most prominent player without some operational urgency behind it.

The timing lands in the middle of a stretch of home games. Los Angeles hosts the Washington Nationals on Sunday, then opens a series against the Cincinnati Reds on Monday. With probable pitchers listed as TBD on the Dodgers' side for all three upcoming contests, the rotation picture is already unsettled — and Ohtani's status as a hitter adds another variable to the lineup card Dave Roberts is working with each night.

The broader roster context is active. A day after Ohtani's second consecutive absence was reported, the club activated right-hander Bobby Miller from the 60-day IL for his 2026 debut, designating Alek Thomas for assignment in a corresponding move. An Ohtani IL placement — if it comes — would open another 40-man roster spot to work with as the club manages its final weeks of the regular season. September's expanded 28-man active roster gives teams more flexibility than the standard 26-man limit, but a 15-day IL commitment still shapes how a club can deploy its depth across a playoff push.

The club has also had other roster business to manage in recent days. Catcher Ben Rortvedt was outrighted to Triple-A Oklahoma City after being designated for assignment earlier in the week. None of that is directly connected to the Ohtani situation, but it illustrates the volume of decisions a contending club is processing simultaneously as the calendar turns toward the final month.

Where the club stands

Los Angeles enters Sunday at 84-57 (.596), first in the NL West, and riding a two-game winning streak. The division magic number sits at 12, meaning a combination of Dodgers wins and second-place losses totaling 12 would clinch the division title.

The upcoming schedule keeps the club at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium: Sunday against Washington with Andrew Alvarez as the Nationals' probable, Monday against Cincinnati with Chase Burns on the mound for the Reds, and Tuesday against Cincinnati again with Nick Lodolo probable for Cincinnati. The Dodgers have not announced probable starters for any of those three games on their own side — a detail that may or may not resolve once the club's roster situation becomes clearer.

A magic number of 12 with a full month of baseball remaining means the division race is not the source of urgency here. The urgency is about getting Ohtani healthy and available for October, and every day the club spends weighing the IL decision is a day it has not yet started the clock toward getting him back.

What we don't know yet

The Dodgers have not announced a diagnosis for the neck and right biceps concerns that kept Ohtani out Thursday, and no official word has come on whether those issues are connected to, or independent of, the right knee problem that has kept him off the mound since July 3. The IL decision is described as something the club is weighing — not something it has made. No return timetable has been reported.

It is also unclear how a potential IL placement would interact with Ohtani's two-way status and the club's broader September roster construction. Under general league rules, a 15-day placement would begin a clock that runs right into the final weeks of the regular season — and the math from there is something the Dodgers' front office is presumably working through in real time.

Chen's report did not include a club statement or a quote from manager Dave Roberts on the situation. Until the Dodgers announce something formally, this remains a developing roster situation with the most consequential details still outstanding.

What to watch

### Is Ohtani in the lineup Sunday?

That is the immediate question, and as of Sonja Chen's report for MLB.com, no lineup had been announced. If Ohtani is absent again, the Dodgers will have missed him for four consecutive games — and the pressure to formalize the situation with an IL placement would presumably increase. A roster move announcement before first pitch Sunday would settle the question for at least the near term.

Beyond Sunday, the Reds series early next week offers a useful window. Cincinnati sends Chase Burns and Nick Lodolo to the mound in back-to-back games, and the lineup construction around those matchups will tell its own story about how Los Angeles is managing the absence. Watch, too, for whether the Dodgers announce a probable starter on their side of those games — right now, all three upcoming contests list TBD, which is its own kind of signal about how much is still unresolved.

The magic number of 12 means the division race is not what is keeping the Dodgers' front office up at night. What is keeping them up is the same thing it has been all week: a two-way player with layered physical concerns, a roster in motion, and a postseason that does not care about any of it.