In the unforgiving theater of October baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers confront a question that transcends strategy: when a transcendent talent is diminished by injury, does loyalty to the symbol serve the team better than honest reckoning with reality? Shohei Ohtani, four-time MVP and the franchise's brightest star, has managed just three singles in twenty postseason at-bats while nursing a left knee and right biceps injury that have stripped away his power for nearly two months. As the series shifts to Dodger Stadium with Los Angeles facing elimination pressure, manager Dave Roberts must we
Dodgers Weighing Benching Ohtani for Game 3 as Star Struggles with Injuries
Three hits in twenty at-bats. His power has been gone for two months.
Mark
So the Dodgers are actually considering sitting their best player in the playoffs. How bad has Ohtani really been?
Mimi
Three hits in twenty at-bats. That's a .150 average. And it's not just this series—his power has been gone for two months. No home runs since August 18.
Luke
But we should be careful here. Is he struggling because he's hurt, or is he hurt because he's struggling? The reporting says he's been dealing with a knee injury and a biceps issue, but how much of his slump is physical versus just the normal variance of baseball?
Mimi
Fair point. But Roberts has already moved him down in the order, and now he's considering benching him entirely. That's not a manager making a small adjustment—that's a team in crisis mode.
Mark
And if they do bench him, who plays instead?
Mimi
A twenty-one-year-old kid named Josue De Paula who just got called up in September. He's a prospect, technically an outfielder, but they've been using him as a DH.
Luke
How much has he actually played? The reporting says he's had three plate appearances and drawn two walks. That's a tiny sample.
Mimi
Tiny, yes. But he's shown poise. He's not intimidated by the moment. And he did hit twenty-seven homers in Double-A this year.
Mark
So the Dodgers are weighing whether to trust a kid who barely has any big league experience over a four-time MVP who is injured.
Luke
Which tells you everything about how much Ohtani's injuries have affected him. Roberts wouldn't even consider this move if Ohtani were close to healthy.
Mimi
Exactly. And Milwaukee is two wins away from their first pennant in forty-four years. The Dodgers are fighting for their season.
El Pulso
- Milwaukee's 7-4 victory in Game 2 has evened the NLCS and placed the Dodgers in genuine danger of watching their season end at home.
- Ohtani's offensive collapse is not a slump but a symptom — his last home run came August 18, and two separate injuries have hollowed out the power that defines his game.
- Roberts has already demoted Ohtani in the batting order, a quiet acknowledgment that the star's presence alone is no longer enough to justify his spot.
- A frank conversation during the travel day will determine whether Ohtani is benched entirely, a decision that would mark one of the most striking concessions in recent postseason memory.
- Josue De Paula, a 21-year-old who hit 27 home runs in Double-A and has drawn two walks in three playoff appearances, stands ready to make his first career postseason start on the sport's biggest stage.
In the unforgiving theater of October baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers confront a question that transcends strategy: when a transcendent talent is diminished by injury, does loyalty to the symbol serve the team better than honest reckoning with reality? Shohei Ohtani, four-time MVP and the franchise's brightest star, has managed just three singles in twenty postseason at-bats while nursing a left knee and right biceps injury that have stripped away his power for nearly two months. As the series shifts to Dodger Stadium with Los Angeles facing elimination pressure, manager Dave Roberts must weigh the weight of a name against the needs of a moment — and a 21-year-old prospect waits quietly in the wings.
The Dodgers return to Los Angeles for Game 3 of the NLCS in a fragile state. Milwaukee evened the series with a 7-4 win in Game 2, and now Los Angeles faces a problem more complicated than a deficit: Shohei Ohtani is hurt, and it is showing.
Ohtani has three hits — all singles — across twenty at-bats in the first two games. The damage predates the postseason. A left knee injury ended his pitching season in early June. A right biceps problem emerged in late summer, landing him on the injured list in mid-September. His last home run came August 18 against Colorado. Over his final eighteen regular season games, he went deep zero times — only the second such stretch of his Major League career. Manager Dave Roberts has already dropped him down the lineup, but the question now is whether Ohtani should start Game 3 at all.
Roberts told reporters he plans to speak with Ohtani during the travel day before making a decision. If the star is held out, the Dodgers would turn to Josue De Paula — a 21-year-old prospect called up in September who has been a quiet presence on the postseason roster. De Paula has drawn two walks in three plate appearances, including a crucial one in the Division Series that helped Los Angeles pull away late. He spent two weeks as the designated hitter while Ohtani was on the IL and handled it well. In Double-A this season, he hit .303 with 27 home runs and a .547 slugging percentage, skipping Triple-A entirely.
Should Roberts make the call, De Paula would step into his first career playoff start in the most important game the Dodgers have played this October — a young player asked to fill a space that one of baseball's greatest stars can no longer reliably occupy.
The Dodgers are heading home to Los Angeles for Game 3 of the National League Championship Series in a precarious position. Milwaukee took Game 2 by a score of 7-4, evening the series and moving within two wins of their first pennant since 1982. Now, as the teams prepare to shift to Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, Los Angeles faces a harder problem than just the deficit: their most important player is not performing, and he is hurt.
Shohei Ohtani has collected three hits through two games—all singles—in twenty at-bats. In Game 2, he went hitless in four tries with two strikeouts. The four-time MVP has been operating well below full capacity for weeks. A left knee injury sidelined him from pitching after early June. A right biceps problem has dogged him since late summer. The Dodgers placed him on the injured list in mid-September, and the postseason has only confirmed what the organization already knew: Ohtani has not been close to healthy.
The offensive drought extends far beyond these first two playoff games. Ohtani's power has simply vanished. He managed just one extra-base hit—a double—in his final five regular season games. His last home run came on August 18 against Colorado, more than seven weeks ago. Over his final eighteen games of the regular season, he did not go deep once, marking only the second time in his Major League career that he has endured such a stretch. The only other occasion was September 2022.
Manager Dave Roberts has already made one adjustment, dropping Ohtani from the leadoff and second spots in the order down to fourth or fifth. But the calculus has shifted. Roberts told reporters Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic that he plans to have a conversation with Ohtani during the travel day before deciding whether to remove him from the Game 3 lineup entirely. For a team fighting for survival in October, it is a measure of how far the star has fallen.
If Roberts does bench Ohtani, the likely replacement would be Josue De Paula, a twenty-one-year-old prospect the Dodgers called up in September and have carried as a bench bat through the postseason. De Paula has not flinched at the moment. In three playoff plate appearances, he has drawn two walks. He worked a crucial base on balls against Didier Fuentes in Game 4 of the Division Series that helped the Dodgers secure a decisive lead. In Game 1 of the NLCS, he kept the ninth inning alive with a two-out walk against Trevor Megill, though Mookie Betts flew out to end the game 2-1.
De Paula is an outfielder by trade, but the Dodgers have no intention of putting him in the field during October. When Ohtani was on the injured list, De Paula got a two-week audition as the designated hitter and performed well. This season in Double-A, he hit twenty-seven home runs with a .303 batting average, a .401 on-base percentage, and a .547 slugging percentage. He skipped the top minor league level entirely. If the Dodgers move forward without Ohtani in Game 3, De Paula would be making his first career playoff start in the most consequential game of the season so far.
Citas Notables
Manager Dave Roberts said he will have a conversation with Ohtani during the travel day before deciding whether to sit him for Game 3.— Dave Roberts, via Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic
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