We're used to seeing Shohei Ohtani stand out as the best baseball player in the world. There is simply no active player more dominant at the plate than the four-time MVP and six-time All-Star. That's what makes Ohtani's struggles to hit home runs for the two-time reigning World Series champion Dodgers lately so jarring.
Through five Dodgers postseason games so far, including a Game 1 loss in the National League Championship Series (NLCS) to the Milwaukee Brewers, Ohtani has yet to hit a home run. He's also just 3-for-16 as a hitter so far in the postseason. If we take a broader look at Ohtani's performance dating back to the regular season, he hasn't hit a dinger since an August 18th game against the Colorado Rockies. For you math majors out
there, that is almost two full months without hitting the long ball for a dude with four separate MLB seasons with at least 44 home runs.
Yes, dearest readers, I am just as confused as you are as to what is going on with Ohtani. Because let's make this clear: If Ohtani were firing on all cylinders as expected, it would be much harder to see the Brewers beating the All-Star-laden Dodgers even though Milwaukee had the better regular-season record. But he isn't right now, which leaves the door open for Milwaukee.
What, exactly, is wrong with Ohtani, you might ask? Well, he's been dealing with a lot of injury issues. A variety of knee and biceps injuries have plagued Ohtani since the start of the summer. In fact, the 2026 season was the first time the 32-year-old appeared in fewer than 158 games since 2023, which was his last season with the Los Angeles Angels.
To me, it seems clear that Ohtani's injury issues have kept him from establishing a healthy rhythm he hasn't found in a long time. The issue for Ohtani and the Dodgers here is that we're not in July anymore. It's mid-October, and the Dodgers are playing what might be baseball's best team. Ohtani doesn't have much time left to get back into a scary zone for his opponents. The Dodgers' overall talent will give them a good chance to beat the Brewers without an elite Ohtani, but make no mistake: They're much more vulnerable if he isn't mashing dingers and extra-base hits all over the place. In a way, they're unsurprisingly built around him doing just that.
We'll see if Ohtani can look more like his dominant self over the rest of the NLCS, with a third straight trip to the World Series on the line.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: What's wrong with Shohei Ohtani?
