LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers are expecting Shohei Ohtani to be fully healthy by the beginning of the 2027 season. But after ongoing injuries derailed him in '26, they will have to evaluate what they can do differently to successfully get him through next year as a two-way player.
Ohtani does not need surgery to address the right biceps and left knee injuries he has dealt with since at least June, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at the Dodgers' end-of-season press conference on Wednesday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.
Friedman added that he "fully" expects Ohtani to pitch in 2027, which is in line with what Ohtani said after the Dodgers' season came to an abrupt end when the Brewers swept them out of the NL Championship Series. But Friedman admitted to some uncertainty over whether Ohtani would be able to go through a full two-way regular season and still be at his best for a deep postseason run.
"We haven’t gotten into details yet," Friedman said, "but I expect us to throw our heads together and figure out both in the batter’s box, on the mound, just how we marry all that together to have him impact us as much as he can during the regular season and then also be in a really good spot going into October."
Ohtani hit a team-leading 30 homers with an .889 OPS and recorded a 1.79 ERA through 14 starts, but his ongoing injuries began to take their toll in midsummer. The 32-year-old did not pitch again after July 3 and saw his offensive production drop off steeply in mid-August, roughly around the same time he attempted to ramp back up on the mound.
It was not until September that Ohtani's injuries compromised him so badly that the Dodgers felt it was time to place him on the injured list. He still didn't look like himself when he returned and was a greatly diminished presence in the postseason, hitting 5-for-26 (.192) with one extra-base hit, a three-run homer in NLCS Game 4.
"I haven't been able to really come to grips in terms of what I've learned overall this season," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton afterward. "It's something that I'm going to kind of go back to the drawing board in terms of treatment, training program, and see what I can come up with for next season."
Having Ohtani closer to full strength may not have changed the Dodgers' ultimate fate, as they were slumping up and down the lineup when their three-peat bid failed. But in order to sustain his ability to serve in a two-way role as he gets older, L.A. may need to manage him more proactively moving forward.
In 2027, the priority will once again be having a full two-way Ohtani in the postseason. To that end, one possibility the Dodgers are considering is that Ohtani might not start the season in the rotation, even if he is healthy enough to pitch at that point.
"I think so much of it is, when are we starting up both?" Friedman said. "Is he pitching right out of the gate? If so, how are we going to manage that in the first month and then assess things? … We're just going to have to be very deliberate about it on all sides, because the value of it is incredible, and therefore it's incumbent upon all of us to figure out the best way to do it."
Like with all aspects of managing Ohtani, piecing together the right plan will require an open conversation between all parties. That was a bit of an issue in 2026, when Friedman acknowledged that Ohtani may not have always accurately conveyed how he was feeling physically -- as most star players are wont to do in the interest of playing as much as possible.
"The greatest players we’ve been around all do the exact same thing," Friedman said, "and it’s rooted in how much he cares about competing and helping his team win."
Ohtani has never started a season as a two-way player and pitched in the postseason that same year. His biggest two-way workload was in his age-27 season in 2022, when he took 666 plate appearances as a hitter and threw a career-high 166 innings over 28 starts as a pitcher.
It's unclear whether Ohtani will be able to shoulder an equivalent two-way workload in a single season going forward. But his entire professional career has been defined by making the unprecedented possible. If he is to continue to do that going forward, he and the Dodgers will have to map out the blueprint to get there together.