PHILADELPHIA — Very rarely does Shohei Ohtani set a goal and fail to achieve it. Most baseball mountains he summits with awe-inspiring aplomb. Take, for instance, that ambitious list of goals he drew up for himself in high school.
This dynamic has grown only truer since Ohtani signed up with the juggernaut Dodgers ahead of the 2024 season. In the two years since: two MVPs and two World Series titles. Came, saw, conquered. Along the way, Ohtani delivered the greatest single-game performance in MLB history with that three-homer, six-scoreless-inning mastery in 2025 NLCS Game 4.
But his 2026 campaign came with a tantalizing side quest, one that, as far as anybody could reasonably tell, meant a great deal to Ohtani. Entering the season fully healthy and built up on the mound for the first time as a Dodger, the two-way machine could finally operate at full capacity as a pitcher. That provided an opportunity for the global megastar to pursue the only major accolade he has yet to attain.
Shohei Ohtani wanted a Cy Young.
He will not get it this year.
On Sunday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts informed reporters that Ohtani would not be making his next scheduled start due to ongoing left knee discomfort. Nothing resembling a return timeline was provided, with Roberts sharing that Ohtani’s road back to pitching “would take some time” and was “not a day-to-day thing.” The impact Ohtani feels each time his lead leg makes contact with the ground while pitching was not helping the injury. Things are less painful at the plate, where he will, of course, continue to lead off and DH.
Ohtani has been dealing with the ailing left knee since June 11, when he was removed midgame the day after a subpar outing against the Pirates. He continued to play through the pain until the Dodgers convinced him to sit out his last start before the All-Star break. Ohtani then skipped the All-Star festivities in Philadelphia, opting for rest and an injection in the affected area. He was thought to be on track to start Wednesday in Philly but is now sidelined as a hurler for the foreseeable future.
“Because it had not gotten better — the All-Star break, the Orthovisc shot, not pitching him — all that stuff is trying to ensure, to give us the best chance for him to be out of the woods entirely with that,” Roberts told reporters before Monday’s game.
How Ohtani feels about all of this, is, for the moment, anyone’s guess. The Dodgers permit postgame interviews with Ohtani only on days that he pitches. In a significant departure from standard player-media norms, approaching Ohtani at any other time is considered taboo by the Dodgers powers-that-be. As a result, he has not spoken to reporters since before the All-Star break.
Surely, though, this injury must represent a massive disappointment. Ohtani had not been shy, by his standards, about wanting to win a Cy Young Award. For all his offensive prowess and accolades, he seems to view pitching as his true calling. He brings an added level of intensity to that aspect of his job. And those around the Dodgers noticed that he arrived at camp this season with a particular level of focus on his pitching responsibilities.
“He seems like he’s on a mission, pitching-wise,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez during spring training. “Whenever we’ve seen him on a mission, good things happen.”
The cold, hard math was always going to be Ohtani’s most formidable opponent in chasing down that Cy Young. Los Angeles, always focused on the bigger picture, decided to employ a six-man rotation in hopes of keeping its stable of pitchers more fresh for the playoffs. With Ohtani pitching once per week as a result, it would be difficult for him to compile enough starts, innings and strikeouts to compete with the other top arms in the National League.
Sheer dominance, albeit over a smaller sample, was the only path. And for the first half of the season, Ohtani provided exactly that. At the time of his knee injury, the Dodgers’ star boasted a microscopic 1.79 ERA with 95 strikeouts across 85 2/3 innings. He has allowed four home runs all season and has surrendered more than three runs in an outing just once.
But because Ohtani’s rate-based numbers trailed those of the similarly untouchable Jacob Misiorowski — that assortment of lean limbs slinging cheddar in Wisconsin — in way fewer innings, it became clearer and clearer that a Cy Young was likely out of reach for the two-way phenom. Now, for at least this year, it remains an unreachable star.
That’s not to say Ohtani has finished impacting this baseball season with his arm. Late Monday afternoon, Ohtani emerged from the visiting dugout at Citizens Bank Park with his glove in his hand. He proceeded to play catch, working through his mechanics, putting weight on and off his ailing knee. He worked out to around 150 feet, long-tossing from the windup, and did not appear to be hindered in any significant way.
Eventually, he returned to the clubhouse, put his glove back into the chrome, hard-shell miniature suitcase he keeps it in and transitioned his attention to Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez.
That entire story is yet another reminder of Ohtani’s uniqueness.
Most other baseball players are embroiled in repeating conflicts of man vs. man and, when it rains, man vs. nature. Ohtani, however, is more so doing battle with the guy in the mirror. Man vs. self. Ohtani vs. Ohtani. He has, time and time again, imploded the sport’s boundaries. And so, the only worthy foe left is himself.
Because while his abilities are limitless, his body is not.
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