Shohei Ohtani won’t make planned start to pitch vs. Phillies

NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani will miss his scheduled start Wednesday against the Philadelphia Phillies and will not take the mound indefinitely as he deals with irritation in his left knee, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Sunday.

Roberts said Friday that the initial plan was for Ohtani, who hasn’t pitched in more than two weeks, to return to the mound Wednesday in Philadelphia.

But that changed when Ohtani told the Dodgers’ training staff that the knee wasn’t progressing as he expected before throwing his usual bullpen session.

Roberts said he does not yet know whether Ohtani’s start will just be pushed back a few days or skipped altogether. He said he fully expects Ohtani to pitch again this season; it’s just a matter of when.

“Kind of where we’re at, right now, how we’re proceeding, I would say that it’s going to be some time,” Roberts said before the Dodgers’ doubleheader against the New York Yankees. “And I say that it’s not going to be a day-to-day thing.”

Ohtani has not pitched since July 3, when he allowed three runs over six innings against the San Diego Padres. He was scratched from his next outing, though he continued as the Dodgers’ designated hitter. He had a lubricant injected into the knee July 12, the Sunday before the All-Star break, and did not travel to Philadelphia for the All-Star Game.

“I just think for us, it’s more like what we’ve done many times over, erring on the side of caution,” Roberts said.

The change prompted the Dodgers to move Emmet Sheehan’s scheduled start back a day to Monday. They will likely proceed with a bullpen game in Sunday’s nightcap after Yoshinobu Yamamoto takes the mound for the opener opposite Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler in a marquee pitching matchup between two All-Star right-handers.

Ohtani will be the designated hitter for the opener, but Roberts said the club had not decided whether he will be in the lineup for the second game. Roberts said the Dodgers have not considered shutting Ohtani down completely for multiple days because the knee is only an issue when he pitches.

“He did this pitching,” Roberts said. “When he does swing the bat, it’s the back knee versus the land knee where you’re kind of driving off of it to create torque when you pitch. So there is no feeling of any sensation [when he hits] or any reason why we feel like we’ve got to stop hitting.”

Ohtani, a four-time MVP and the three-time defending National League MVP, is a huge favorite to win the award again this season. He has been one of the best pitchers in the majors in his first full season on the mound since 2023 with a 1.79 ERA over 85⅔ innings across 14 starts. Ohtani is batting .289 with 22 home runs while ranking third in the NL in both OPS (.942) and wRC+ (154).