Ohtani focus on elbow procedure as year ends
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shohei Ohtani underwent an MRI on Friday afternoon that showed lingering irritation in his right oblique, prompting him to shut down his season as a hitter and shift his focus to treating the torn ulnar collateral ligament that previously ended his season as a pitcher, Los Angeles Angels general manager Perry Minasian said Saturday.
“I don’t have details on the procedure,” Minasian said, “but obviously he wants to get that as quick as he can and start getting ready for ’24.”
Ohtani, who’ll be a free agent at season’s end, plans on continuing to hit and pitch down the road, and his agent, Nez Balelo of CAA, previously said he will be ready to at least hit “when the bell rings” at the start of the 2024 season.
Ohtani could use platelet-rich plasma and stem-cell therapy to treat the tear in his right UCL, but it seems more likely that he’ll go the surgical route, either with Tommy John surgery or an internal bracing procedure or some combination of both. Any invasive procedure would probably rule out Ohtani as a pitcher in 2024.
“Shohei — he’s one of a kind,” Minasian said. “Great player, great person. I think anybody that knows him, has a chance to talk to him, be around him — he’s a team guy. He’s a pretty special guy, he’s a pretty special player, and it’s been a pleasure to get to know him these last three years and hopefully he’s here for a long time.”
Ohtani, 29, suffered an oblique strain during a rare session of outdoor batting practice on Sept. 4 and proceeded to miss the next 11 games. He left Angel Stadium at around 4 p.m. PT on Friday to undergo an MRI, Minasian said, then received his results early in the Angels’ ensuing game against the Detroit Tigers. Media members entered the home clubhouse at Angel Stadium later that night to find that Ohtani’s locker had been mostly cleared out, creating a stir on social media that Minasian tried his best to diffuse during his news conference on Saturday.
“I think in his mind he thought there was a possibility for a procedure today, and that’s why he packed,” Minasian said. “Nothing malicious. There’s no story here. He’s so focused on, ‘Season’s over, I gotta get ready for ’24,’ and that was what his mindset was. He’s planning on being here the last homestand. He’s going to be here today, tomorrow.”
Ohtani put together another spectacular season and appears to be a lock to win the American League’s Most Valuable Player Award for the second time in three years. He slashed .304/.412/.654 while leading the AL in home runs (44), walks (91) and total bases (325) as a hitter and went 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA in 132 innings as a pitcher, striking out 167 batters and issuing 55 walks. Despite pitching and hitting for only about five out of six months, Ohtani’s 9.0 FanGraphs wins above replacement easily leads the majors.
The Angels, however, are barreling toward their eighth consecutive losing season, which would set a franchise record. Despite also employing Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon, both of whom have been beset by injuries these past three years, the Angels haven’t even been relevant in the stretch run of the regular season in their six years with Ohtani.
Asked about the chances of re-signing him as a free agent, Minasian said: “That would be a question for him. But I think he really enjoys his time here. Obviously, he’s had three of the greatest — if not the greatest — years any player has ever had. I think he enjoys his teammates and the area and the fan base and the organization. There’s a lot of trust and a lot of communication. I hope he’s here for a long time.”
The Angels, under then-GM Billy Eppler and former manager Mike Scioscia, recruited Ohtani out of Japan in December 2017 but got only half a season out of him as a two-way player within the first two years. Ohtani was diagnosed with a Grade 2 tear of his right UCL in June 2018 and was recommended Tommy John surgery in September, after PRP and stem-cell therapy did not take. He continued to hit through the end of the season and underwent Tommy John surgery in October, which kept him out of the lineup until May of the following season.
Ohtani struggled mightily as a two-way player during the COVID-19-shortened season of 2020, then put together a three-year stretch that will go down as one of the most impressive in baseball history. As a hitter, Ohtani slashed .277/.379/.585 with 124 home runs, 290 RBIs and 57 stolen bases in 447 games. As a pitcher, he accumulated 34 wins and posted a 2.84 ERA in 428⅔ innings, striking out 542 batters in the process. If not for a record-breaking home run season from Aaron Judge in 2022, he would have won three consecutive MVPs.
“He’s a great player,” Minasian said. “Great player that can do things on a baseball field that nobody else can do. As good of a player as he is, the thing I appreciate the most is the preparation part of it. The want-to, the care. This is somebody that puts everything he has into it, and I have a ton of respect for that.”
Ohtani hasn’t spoken publicly since Aug. 9, his last full start before learning about his UCL tear when he next took the mound 14 days later. Ohtani found out about the injury shortly after an early exit from the first game of a doubleheader and was in the lineup for Game 2. He then accompanied the Angels on a three-city road trip through New York, Philadelphia and Oakland, serving as the team’s designated hitter throughout. The oblique injury occurred hours before the first game of the ensuing homestand.
Ohtani continually worked to be in the lineup nonetheless, getting scratched on a couple of occasions. Earlier this week, while the Angels were in Seattle, Minasian saw him in the batting cages “taking massive hacks” to test the injury as much as possible.
“He wants to play,” Minasian said, “and that’s what we love about him.”
Ohtani’s elbow procedure will be decided on between him and his representation at CAA. The Angels, who will technically be his employer for only 2½ more weeks, haven’t really been involved in that process.
“There’s discussions, and once they lock something down, there will be communication,” Minasian said. “Sho and his group will handle that, determine what they wanna do and how they wanna do it, who they wanna do it with, and I respect that. I’ll obviously have that information at some point. But definitely respect his decision.”
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Jesse Rogers
MILWAUKEE — Perhaps some divine intervention had a hand in the Brewers advancing to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2018 after they defeated the Cubs in Game 5 of the NL Division Series on Saturday night. More than once, general manager Matt Arnold said he looked “to the heavens” for some inspiration from Brewers icon Bob Uecker, who passed away last offseason.
“I kept saying, ‘Bob, we need you,'” Arnold said in the Brewers’ champagne-soaked clubhouse following the tense 3-1 win. “We know he’s with us.”
Arnold’s prayers were answered as Milwaukee hit three solo home runs while perfectly navigating its own bullpen game — just as the Cubs were attempting to do — holding Chicago to a solo home run. Midseason pickup Andrew Vaughn went deep again, while midseason call-up Jacob Misiorowski pitched the bulk of the game, going four innings and allowing just that one run.
Vaughn, in particular, felt the meaning of the moment more than most. Traded by the Chicago White Sox after a terrible start to his season, he found new life with the Brewers. He compiled a 1.126 OPS in the series, including two home runs.
“The journey has been kind of crazy,” Vaughn said. “But not taking anything for granted. The opportunity to be with this group, it’s changed my life.”
For Misiorowski, it was the first time in 17 appearances, dating back to the regular season, that he didn’t issue a walk. He gave up three hits and struck out three in a masterful performance.
“I think I was giving everything I’ve got,” he said. “And I think I left everything out there.”
The other four Brewers pitchers held the Cubs scoreless.
“It kind of went according to plan,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “But then, we saw [Aaron Ashby] was a little bit not as sharp as he could have been. It’s his fourth time seeing them. And then, Chad Patrick was maybe the player of the game because you don’t expect him to be that good, pitching an inning plus.”
Patrick relieved Ashby during a potential turning point in the sixth. With Milwaukee up 2-1, Ashby gave up a hit and then hit a batter, putting runners on first and second with no outs. But then he threw the pitch of the game, a nasty 98.6 mph fastball on the edge of the zone to Kyle Tucker, who swung and missed on a 3-2 count. Patrick entered next. He got Seiya Suzuki to fly out and caught Ian Happ looking. It was the last rally of the season for the Cubs.
“Ashby made a pretty darned good pitch, 3-2, to Tucker,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “Looked like right down away on the corner. It was a nasty pitch. Seiya had a good at-bat against Patrick. … And then, they got out of it essentially.
“It’s really the only inning you could talk about. We just didn’t do much. We had six baserunners. You’re going to have to hit homers to have any runs scoring in scenarios like that.”
The win completed a back-and-forth series where the home team held serve throughout. The Brewers admitted the environment in Games 3 and 4 in Chicago got to them, allowing the Cubs to even the series after Milwaukee took a 2-0 lead. Would the Brewers give it away like they did in the wild-card round last year when New York Mets star Pete Alonso beat them with a late home run in the deciding game?
Longtime Brewers star Christian Yelich was asked what he learned from that heartbreaking experience.
“Just go at it fearless,” Yelich said during the postgame clubhouse party. “You can’t really lose them tougher than we did last year. So going into the night, you just play with a bunch of freedom. You know you’ve got belief and trust in your teammates that we’re going to be able to get the job done. That’s exactly what we’re able to do.”
The Brewers said all the right things about beating the Cubs, though it had to feel extra special taking down a big-market payroll and Milwaukee’s former manager, who left for greener pastures two years ago. As has become the norm since he took the job in Chicago, Counsell was booed every time he poked his head out of the dugout.
Milwaukee owner Mark Attanasio was asked if he had any doubts about his team continuing its winning ways after Counsell left the organization before the 2024 season.
“I believed in the process and the system and the people,” Attanasio said. “The Cubs were really good this year. It’s just a testament to this whole organization.”
In terms of big-market, high-payroll teams, the Cubs were just the appetizer. Next up for the Brewers are the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, who reside in the sport’s second-largest market and own the highest team payroll in the majors, more than $200 million ahead of the Brewers.
“It doesn’t get any more big market and small market than Brewers-Dodgers,” Yelich said with a smile. “We’re up against it. We know it. We love being in those situations. It’s fitting the season for us is going to come down to that series, that team and all that star power. You have the average Joes coming there. We’re going to do what we did all year, compete our asses off, go hard and see what happens.”
Attanasio added: “Let’s go! I can’t wait.”
The Brewers went 6-0 against the Dodgers in the regular season and have home-field advantage in the series, but they will be the decided underdogs. Uecker’s spirit might be needed now more than ever, as taking down the Dodgers despite everything that the Brewers have accomplished will be their toughest task yet.
“I’m grateful for the guys we’ve had in the room,” Murphy said. “They’ve been doubted every year. Everyone. There’s no one predicting the Brewers playing the Dodgers in the series.”
Arnold added: “We’ve been planning for this. You can’t just roll out of bed and play the Dodgers.”
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Jorge Castillo
Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette is not on the roster for the AL Championship Series vs. the Seattle Mariners.
Bichette has not played since spraining his left knee in a collision on Sept. 6. He ran for the first time Wednesday, hit live pitching Friday and appeared to be in some discomfort as he ran the bases for the first time Saturday.
Game 1 against the Mariners is scheduled for Sunday night at Rogers Centre.
Toronto’s offense did not falter without the 27-year-old Bichette in the AL Division Series. The Blue Jays scored 34 runs in the four games and pounded the New York Yankees‘ pitching for 23 runs in the first two contests at home. But Bichette was one of the team’s three best hitters during the regular season.
A free agent this winter, Bichette rebounded from a dreadful, injury-plagued 2024 season in which he posted a .598 OPS in 81 games to his previous All-Star-level form in his platform year. He batted .311 — tied for second in the AL — with 18 home runs, 94 RBIs and an .840 OPS in 139 games, though he was the worst defensive shortstop in the majors as measured by outs above average and defensive runs saved.
Andres Gimenez, previously the team’s starting second baseman, started at shortstop for the Blue Jays in their division series win over Yankees. Utilityman Ernie Clement also played shortstop for Toronto during the regular season after Bichette’s injury.
After carrying just three starters in the AL Division Series and deploying a bullpen game in Game 4, the Blue Jays are carrying both Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt — who finished the season on the injured list with back inflammation — on the ALCS roster as possible options for length. Both starters threw in a simulated game early in the week at Rogers Centre.
ESPN’s Jorge Castillo contributed to this report.
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