The Dodgers may have stumbled through the Shohei Ohtani situation this postseason, but the plan for how to handle him going forward already sounds a lot cleaner.
A muddled summer turned into a messy October, and the biggest frustration for Los Angeles wasn’t just that Ohtani dealt with a knee issue that surfaced in July. It was the sense that nobody quite seemed aligned on how to manage it. That uncertainty hung around until the Dodgers’ final push against the Milwaukee Brewers.
There’s some grace built into the whole thing, because the Dodgers were trying to navigate unfamiliar territory. Even Ohtani’s six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels don’t offer much of a guide, since the source material makes clear that no one has exactly trusted how that organization handled things under Arte Moreno.
Still, there was enough trial and error to go around, and too much of it landed on the wrong side of the line for Dodgers fans. Ohtani stayed convinced he could keep playing through the injury. Andrew Friedman and Dave Roberts, for their part, kept believing him.
That conversation figures to continue this offseason, but there’s already a hint of where the Dodgers want to go next. According to Katie Woo of The Athletic, the organization may simply lean into the approach that worked best in 2025.
" The Dodgers have an idea. They saw their best version of Ohtani in the postseason, both as a pitcher and hitter, in 2025.
They gradually built Ohtani up throughout the regular season, where he made 14 starts starting in mid-June. [...]
Los Angeles will probably try to implement a similar concept next season, with Friedman hinting as much last week."
That gradual build-up is the key piece here, and it’s no surprise the Dodgers would want to return to it. Ohtani may not love being held to an inning or two for a stretch, but the lesson from this year is hard to miss: the Dodgers can’t just follow his lead and hope for the best. They’re the ones responsible for keeping him healthy, even when he says he’s good to go.
The bigger point is that Los Angeles doesn’t need to chase pitching urgency with Ohtani. The Dodgers have plenty of arms, including Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, hopefully Tarik Skubal, and a group of former top prospects eager for whatever innings they can get, whether in the rotation or out of the bullpen.
What the Dodgers need most from Ohtani is his bat. Pitching may be his true love, but the team’s best path is to keep putting the spotlight on his hitting, just as they did in 2025.
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