Shohei Ohtani won't need surgery, expected to pitch in 2027 - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani will not require surgery to treat his left knee or right arm or any other ailment he dealt with throughout the second half of this past season, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Wednesday.

Doctors merely prescribed rest. The expectation is that his 2027 season will be unaffected. When Ohtani begins his preparations for it, he will train as a two-way player.

«I fully expect him to pitch next year,» Friedman said during an end-of-season news conference at Dodger Stadium.

But what that looks like has yet to be determined.

«This is unprecedented, what he's doing,» Friedman added. «So obviously for us it's unprecedented. We don't have any experience to draw from. We can't go look at how other situations have played out to try to learn from the good and the bad. We have to all just figure it out together. And I'm not only expecting him to pitch; we're excited about him pitching. So now it's about: How do we do that? How do we manage through a long season and have him at his best going into October? That's a challenge.»

Ohtani was a diminished version of himself by the time October arrived. He ended the regular season with 11 hits and 29 strikeouts over his last 70 at-bats and went 4-for-22 with no extra-base hits in his first seven postseason games. Ohtani finally broke through with a home run in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, his first since Aug. 18, but it was too late for a Dodgers team that was ultimately swept by the Milwaukee Brewers.

Asked if the Dodgers could have managed Ohtani's two-way status differently to put him in a better spot for October, Friedman said: «I don't know the answer to that. It's one of those things that — the injuries