In the seventh inning of the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ eventual 4-2 win over the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the World Series, Dodgers superstar DH Shohei Ohtani suffered a partially dislocated left shoulder while sliding into second base on an unsuccessful steal attempt. The good news is that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on Sunday told ESPN that Ohtani is “in a great spot and will be playing in Game 3 tomorrow.”
That, obviously, is an excellent outcome for the Dodgers as the scene shifts to the Bronx and they attempt to make good on their 2-0 lead in the series. All that said, what if Ohtani suffers a setback between now and then or re-injures the shoulder? The hope and likelihood is that neither of those things comes to pass, but it’s worth pondering just the same. Framed another way: What will the Dodgers do if Ohtani still winds up missing time during what’s left of the 2024 World Series?
To say the least, Ohtani’s absence would be a dominating one. During the regular season, Ohtani, who took the season off from his usual pitching duties as he recovers from elbow surgery, slashed .310/.390/.646 in an NL-leading 731 plate appearances, and with 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases he authored the first 50-50 season in Major League Baseball history. As well, Ohtani led the NL with an OPS+ of 190 and led the majors with 411 total bases. As such, he’s the heavy favorite to win NL MVP honors.
Coming off a strong NLCS performance against the Mets, Ohtani through the first two games of this World Series has not made much of an impact. Against the Yankees, he’s gone 1 for 7 with a double, a walk, a caught stealing, and a run scored. Yes, the Dodgers have managed to take the first two games of the series without much from Ohtani, but, to state the obvious, the concern is his availability for the two to five games left to play.
If something else happens to Ohtani’s marred shoulder or if his current prognosis changes, then the Dodgers are facing two possibilities – one, Ohtani misses one or more games but is able to play later in the series, or, two, Ohtani is ruled out for the rest of the series, which forces a roster move.
On the first possibility, Roberts would likely take advantage of the DH vacancy to shore up his occasionally flawed infield defense. The guess here is that, if Ohtani remains rostered but misses at least Game 3, Freddie Freeman and his still-ailing ankle – not that you’d know it from Freeman’s production thus far in the series – shift to DH to ease his in-game burdens. Then Max Muncy would shift across the diamond from third base to first, and Roberts would populate the hot corner with Enrique Hernández. Gavin Lux would man second base. That arrangement could hold at least through Game 6, as the Yankees will trot out all right-handed starters until, presumably, Carlos Rodon‘s turn comes up again in a potential Game 7. All those right-handed Yankee starters mean the lefty-swinging Lux probably would’ve been in the lineup anyway. If Roberts prefers to keep Freeman at first, then Muncy could move to DH instead, and the rest of the shuffling would be as noted above.
If Ohtani’s shoulder injury turns out to be severe enough that the Dodgers are forced to make a roster move, then it seems likely they’d summon up another left-handed bat, as their bench would be all right-handed when Lux is in the lineup. That may mean that veteran fly-catcher Kevin Kiermaier, who was on the Dodgers’ NLCS roster, would make his return. Another possibility might be outfielder James Outman, but Kiermaier seems like the most likely path. The Dodgers throughout their decade-plus of contention and, often, regular-season dominance have been famous for their deep reserves of position players. That supply of reinforcements may not presently be as strong as it once was, but the Dodgers still have reasonable post-Ohtani options that shouldn’t necessarily cripple them. To state the bleedingly obvious, Ohtani would be dearly missed, but there’s enough depth and, more important, surrounding star power to get the Dodgers the two additional wins they need.
The other cause for Dodger comfort is that aforementioned 2-0 lead. They’ve achieved it, as noted, without getting much from Ohtani at the plate, and the bald reality is that the Dodger need to win two more games before the Yankees win four. Historically, teams up 2-0 in a best-of-seven MLB postseason series who opened at home, as the Dodgers did, have gone on to win the series more than 80% of the time. That math is heavily in L.A.’s favor no matter what happens to Ohtani the rest of the way. For now, though, the expectation is that Ohtani will be back where he belongs — at the very top of Roberts’ lineup and making Yankee pitchers who face him most uneasy.
