19 days before the MLB playoffs begin on Sep. 29, the Los Angeles Dodgers placed superstar Shohei Ohtani on the 15-day IL.
After being held out of the lineup for the sixth time in seven games on Wednesday night against the Cincinnati Reds, manager Dave Roberts announced the move to the injured list postgame.
"In talking to Shohei, the doctors, the training staff, it's the right thing to do," Roberts said. "I do think that if the playoffs were tomorrow, he'd be in the lineup...I'm pretty confident he'll be ready to go on that 15th day."
Ohtani was dealing with soreness in his right biceps and left knee weeks before being placed on the IL, but he described feeling something in his arm after a swing on Monday - the opening game of the Reds' series.
The Dodgers are winners of seven in a row and hold a four-game lead over the Atlanta Braves for the No. 2 seed in the NL - which comes with a first-round bye, so the team has some breathing room to afford losing Ohtani for a bit and get him ready for the playoffs.
For the season, Ohtani is hitting .277/.380/.522 for a .902 OPS along with 30 home runs and 80 RBI. He hasn't pitched since July 3rd due to his right biceps issue.
In response to putting Ohtani on the IL, the Dodgers called up No. 6 overall prospect, Josue De Paula, from Double-A Tulsa to make his Major League debut.
Read the latest MLB news on site.
