Ohtani's Struggles: Injury Impact on His Postseason Performance

All right. I got to ask because this Shohei story is really wild. What is wrong with him in your mind? What is it? The injury? Is it the bicep? Is it the knee? Is it the head? Is it the swing? What is going on with the Tommy? Matt, that is the million dollar question. The question that is flooding my DMs for the last several weeks literally is that, is it the knee? Is it his injured left knee that he may need a procedure on at the end of the season? Is it the right bicep soreness that he was suffering you know towards the tail end of July and early August as he was trying to ramp up his pitching to try to return to the mound which they ultimately ended up scratching that dream especially after acquiring Terrence Scooble at the trade deadline is it his neck he had a neck injury that was bothering him for a while is it his swing what is it look I think there's two things here I think that you know we live in a world where multiple things are possible where as he was dealing with this lingering knee issue throughout the course of the season and the right biceps as he was trying to come back to the mound but still remain a hitter in the lineup that all of it put his swing off as you know matt whenever we have an injury we tend to overcompensate the rest of our body and when you're an elite athlete and you're in a baseball player and you're in the batter's box it can affect a lot of different things with your swing and it could affect his timing it could affect uh you know where his hip might be opening up his right front leg uh it could it could affect mentally maybe where you're swinging at pitches that you wouldn't normally swing at I see all of the above happening do I think Ohtani is 100 healthy no do I think he's healthy enough as he admitted to us yesterday in the media during the dodgers workout that it shouldn't be affecting his his numbers and offense at the plate yes so But right now, I think the problem is between the ears for Shohei Ohtani. And we have seen Ohtani over the years when he's wrong, when he's in a slump, when he's struggling, when his swing is not right, when his timing is not right. He looks like we're seeing the Ohtani look like so far here through the, what are we at now? First six games of the postseason for him, right? Where he's chasing balls outside the zone. He doesn't look like, we know what Shohei Ohtani looks like in the batter's box. I mean, we're coming up on the one-year anniversary of maybe the single greatest postseason game by an individual ever played against the Brewers to close them out and send him to the World Series in 2025. Ten strikeouts on the mound, three home runs at the plate. We don't see that guy. That's not the guy that's been stepping into the box these first six games of the postseason. And I will remind people that, you know, in 2024, he scuffled a bit. He dealt with the shoulder injury in the World Series against the Yankees, and he wasn't right. His batting average dipped around .200. But I think the biggest thing for fans and what we're seeing with our eyes is that the home run numbers aren't there at all. Zero home runs, I believe, since August 16th, since he came back. Those are just numbers we're not used to for Otani. So, again, I think it's between the ears, Matt. I think his timing is off. I think everything he's been dealing with this year has put his swing off. He's doing everything he can to try to fix it. He doesn't believe watching the game will fix it. and as you may know, the Dodgers don't tell Shohei Ohtani what to do as far as benching him here in Game 3 or 4. Shohei Ohtani tells the Dodgers what he is going to do, and he had told them yesterday, no, I am absolutely going to play. The only way I can get better is play, and the Dodgers accepted that, and look, I kind of get it. Sometimes you have to save the player from yourself or do what you need to save the season, but this is a guy who has already won you two World Series. You would not be in this position going for a three-peat without him, So if he says, I want to stay in and try to work this out at the plate in the box, then I guess that's what you do when you go down with the ship, because it's not just him struggling. Will Smith's struggling at the plate. There's a lot of guys not hitting right now in this lineup.