Katie Woo gets brutally honest with Dodgers' handling of Shohei Ohtani injury

It took the Los Angeles Dodgers weeks to figure out what fans already knew: Shohei Ohtani hasn't been himself lately.

After a 4-for-5 night against the Colorado Rockies on Aug. 17 and a two-run homer the next day, Ohtani's bat went quiet. From Aug. 19 to his last game before going onto the IL, he hit a paltry .122 with a .479 OPS, two extra-base hits, zero home runs, and zero RBI. His swing looked lifeless, and he was in obvious pain by early September.

Dave Roberts finally admitted on Wednesday night that not only was Ohtani going onto the IL for the first time since September 2023, but that the Dodgers should've made the move days — if not weeks — earlier. He insisted that the Dodgers had emphasized communication, but clearly, something had gotten lost in translation.

Katie Woo of The Athletic went rather scorched-earth on all parties involved now that they've finally admitted defeat and Ohtani's postseason status remains murky. She wrote, "Nobody is blameless in the Shohei Ohtani injury saga. Not the Los Angeles Dodgers’ front office, which should have been more proactive in protecting the team’s biggest star. Not Ohtani, who downplayed the severity of his symptoms."

Katie Woo says what all Dodgers fans have been thinking on LA's poor handling of Shohei Ohtani injury situation

The Dodgers have been quick to defer to their star player, seemingly taking a page out of the Los Angeles Angels and former manager Joe Maddon's book. Maddon said earlier this season that the Angels tended to prioritize Ohtani's opinion on his own status. Roberts and Andrew Friedman have both acknowledged that they would have an uphill battle to fight in terms of convincing Ohtani to take a breather, even for just one game.

For Ohtani to actually admit he wasn't at 100%, which he did on Tuesday, means that either his knee or biceps issues (or both) are no joke. As Woo writes, responsibility falls on both parties: the Dodgers, for not taking the reins, and Ohtani, for being a little too late to admit he was banged up.

Both Roberts and Ohtani have said that this will be a learning experience, though Roberts declined to participate in the "blame game thing."

That's fine, as long as all parties involved can acknowledge their own part in the way this entire situation was mishandled and will do what it takes to avoid a repeat in 2027 and beyond. That said, if the Dodgers fall short of their three-peat goals, the smoking gun is right there.

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