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Ken Rosenthal offered a blunt assessment of Shohei Ohtani‘s absence from the 2026 All-Star Game due to injury, per his column on MSN. The details around the exact nature and severity of Ohtani’s ailment remain somewhat murky — which is precisely what has Rosenthal and the rest of the baseball world paying close attention. When the most valuable player in the sport sits out the Midsummer Classic, people notice. And when the explanation doesn’t come with a clear timeline, it raises questions.

Ohtani, of course, came to the Dodgers ahead of the 2024 season on a record-shattering 10-year, $700 million contract — the largest in professional sports history. His first year in Los Angeles was spent rehabbing from elbow surgery, limited to DH duties, and he still put up a 50-homer, 50-steal season that rewrote what we thought was possible. Since returning to two-way action, he’s been everything we hoped: an elite hitter who also gives us front-of-the-rotation stuff on the mound. Any time Ohtani misses games — even an exhibition — it gets our attention because of the sheer volume of physical demands placed on his body. He is doing something no one in modern baseball has sustained, and the margins are razor-thin.

Rosenthal’s tone here is worth absorbing. He wasn’t speculating wildly, but he wasn’t sugarcoating it either. When a reporter of his caliber describes the situation as something that warrants genuine concern rather than dismissal, that carries weight. The Dodgers have historically been cautious and strategic with injury management — they have one of the best sports science departments in baseball — but that doesn’t mean every situation resolves neatly. We’ve seen this organization shut players down proactively before (and sometimes that caution has paid off handsomely).

The broader context matters here. We’re heading into the second half with legitimate championship aspirations — again — and Ohtani is the engine that makes everything go. Our lineup is deep, our rotation has pieces, but there is no replacing what Ohtani does on both sides of the ball. If this is genuinely minor and precautionary, great. If it’s something that lingers or limits him as a pitcher down the stretch, that changes our calculus for the trade deadline and beyond.

I’ll be watching the first few games after the break closely. How Ohtani looks at the plate, whether he takes the mound on schedule — that will tell us more than any press conference. For now, this sits in the “don’t panic but don’t ignore it” category. The Dodgers need Ohtani healthy for October. Everything between now and then is about making sure that happens.

Source(s): Ken Rosenthal (MSN) | First reported: July 16, 2026 5:25 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers