Shohei Ohtani doesn’t have to prove how much pain he can tolerate.
He already did that in the regular season.
With the Dodgers set to open their National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves or Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday, this isn’t the time for Ohtani to be a hero.
This is the time for Ohtani to be honest.
Because if Ohtani remains as physically compromised as he looked in his final at-bats of the regular season, he has to let the Dodgers know.
He has to let them so they can figure out a plan to help him survive the three rounds of postseason play that stand between them and their third consecutive World Series championship.
He has to let them know so they can have a contingency plan in case his right arm or left knee bother him again to where he can’t take four or five competitive at-bats a game.
He has to let them know so that manager Dave Roberts can factor that into his thinking when he constructs the Dodgers’ lineup.
“I think the communication has been good and feel confident that he’s going to relay (information) if anything’s different,” general manager Brandon Gomes said.
Except Ohtani has a history of not doing that. In fact, he and the Dodgers are in the situation they are in now specifically because he didn’t do that, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman saying “he’s not always the best reporter of how he feels.”
That doesn’t excuse the Dodgers’ mismanagement of Ohtani in the regular season. The front office naively believed his claims that his declining performance wasn’t health-related, ignoring the obvious signs that his right arm and left knee were hurting more than he let on.
With the Dodgers failing to protect him from himself, Ohtani eventually landed on the 15-day injured list.
Ohtani returned to the lineup with five games left in the regular season. He played two games against the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium in which he displayed uncharacteristic plate discipline and drove a couple of balls to the warning track.
So much for the promising start.
Ohtani stunk up Oracle Park in the Dodgers’ season-ending series against the San Francisco Giants, as he was 2-for-12 with five strikeouts in three games.
Roberts blamed the results on impatience, but that could have just been wishful thinking on his part. The alternative was that something was physically wrong with Ohtani again and he wasn’t telling anyone.
One potentially troubling sign: When Ohtani was on deck in San Francisco, he broke custom and didn’t take any swings.
Gomes’ optimism about Ohtani wasn’t diminished by what happened in San Francisco, the general manager asserting the four-time Most Valuable Player was “feeling great physically.”
Gomes said Ohtani would use the time leading up to the start of the NLDS to sharpen to get his swing in line.
“I think this is go time for everybody,” Gomes said. “So, guys are ready to go, and he’s no different.”
Roberts was considerably more measured with his words.
“I feel confident that you’re going to see the best version of Shohei of the last two months,” Roberts said.
In the last two months of the regular season, Ohtani batted .232 with six home runs and 14 runs batted in in 35 games.
“I know that’s sort of a low bar given his injury,” Roberts said, “but I do think he’s as healthy as he’s been in quite some time.”
For now, the Dodgers have no choice but to believe Ohtani.
The fear he strikes in opponents alone makes him a better option to be their designated hitter than 21-year-old rookie Josue De Paula, who has only 31 career at-bats.
But what if Ohtani goes into one of his funks in which he becomes an automatic out and injuries are the reason why?
Ohtani has to let the team know.
The Dodgers have been exemplary partners to him. They provided him a chance to win multiple World Series. They supported his vision of being a two-way player again until he literally couldn’t pitch anymore.
And if Ohtani tells them that he’s healthy, they will almost certainly wait for him to rediscover his offensive rhythm. But if he’s physically incapable of doing that and doesn’t admit that, the Dodgers could wait their way into elimination.
