This article was generated by artificial intelligence and is automatically updated as news breaks. All credit belongs to the original reporters and their publications.

Shohei Ohtani was scratched from his scheduled pitching start Friday night due to irritation in his left knee, per the LA Times staff. He still served as the designated hitter in the Dodgers’ 9-3 loss — and, because he’s Ohtani, he hit a home run anyway. He will not travel to the All-Star Game and will use the break to rest the knee.

We already knew Ohtani was sitting out the Midsummer Classic. That was reported earlier this week. But getting pulled from a regular-season start is a different conversation entirely. This isn’t precautionary All-Star rest anymore — this is the Dodgers actively managing a physical issue that’s affecting his ability to take the mound. The fact that he could still swing and drive one out is encouraging from a hitting standpoint, but a knee issue for a pitcher is something you monitor very carefully, especially one who’s only been back on the mound for a year after his UCL reconstruction.

Ohtani has been the engine of this team on both sides of the ball in 2026. On the mound, he’s been everything the Dodgers hoped for when they signed him to that historic 10-year, $700 million deal before the 2024 season. His two-way workload is unlike anything baseball has seen in the modern era, and the wear that puts on a body — particularly the lower half — is genuinely uncharted territory. There’s no historical blueprint for managing this kind of player long-term. The Dodgers know that better than anyone.

As a hitter, he’s been his usual self — a generational talent who changes the complexion of a lineup just by being in it. That home run Friday, even in a loss, is a reminder that his bat remains dangerous regardless of what’s going on with the knee. But the Dodgers don’t need him to be a full-time DH. They need him pitching. That’s where the real concern sits.

The timing here matters. We’re heading into the All-Star break, which gives Ohtani roughly five days off before the second half begins. That’s a natural window to let something like this calm down without missing additional starts. If the knee responds well to rest, this could end up being a non-story by mid-July. If it doesn’t, the Dodgers have a genuine problem — one that would reshape their pitching plans and almost certainly accelerate their trade deadline urgency for starting pitching (and we already know they’re looking).

I’ll be honest: the fact that they scratched him from the start rather than just limiting his pitch count or skipping an inning tells me this isn’t nothing. The Dodgers are being smart about it, and they should be. You don’t take chances with Ohtani’s health. But with Walker Buehler still finding his footing, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow on the IL, and the rotation already stretched, losing Ohtani starts — even temporarily — is something this team can’t absorb easily.

For now, we wait and see how the knee responds to the break. The Dodgers clearly believe rest will do the trick, or they’d be running more tests and we’d be hearing a different tone. But this is one to keep a close eye on when the second half opens.

Source(s): Staff (LA Times) | First reported: July 11, 2026 6:46 AM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers