Dodgers exec confirms Shohei Ohtani suspicions as injuries potentially impact playoff impact

In hindsight, Andrew Friedman made the Dodgers’ handling of Shohei Ohtani’s injury-plagued season this year sound rather simple.Throughout Ohtani’s return to a full-time two-way role, the team’s president of baseball operations said, the Dodgers checked in with the superstar “on a daily basis, a weekly basis” to monitor how he was feeling as he handled both pitching and hitting duties.That process intensified once Ohtani began battling left knee and right arm injuries in the middle of the season, leading both to the decision to remove Ohtani from the starting rotation in early July –– but also to let him continue playing through his ailments as the team’s everyday DH while attempting to ramp back up with a pitching program, as well.It all reached a tipping point two weeks ago, when a clearly diminished Ohtani was finally placed on the injured list amid a 6-for-52 batting slump, and had any plans of returning to the mound this season scuttled for good.And now, continuing such dialogue will be crucial over the rest of the campaign, with Ohtani returning from the IL on Wednesday for a postseason push that he and the team hopes will see the 32-year-old slugger rediscover his typical productivity at the plate.“The most important thing is how much better he feels,” Friedman said, speaking to reporters before Ohtani’s 1-for-4 performance in a loss to the San Diego Padres.“Now, it’s about continuing that as he takes game-intensity at-bats.”How Ohtani and the Dodgers reached this point, of course, has been the subject of much speculation and criticism over recent weeks.From the start of the year, the club’s No.

1 priority was having Ohtani at full strength as a hitter entering the playoffs. That they failed in that endeavour –– even Friedman acknowledged Wednesday that Ohtani probably isn’t back to 100% physically, though also insisted that “Shohei says he feels back to where he was earlier in the year, which is great” –– will ...