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The Dodgers have changed Shohei Ohtani‘s pitching plans as concerns about his left knee continue to mount, per Jack Harris at the New York Post and Bill Shaikin at the Los Angeles Times. After previously scheduling Ohtani’s next mound appearance for the upcoming Phillies series — and after he received a lubricant injection in the knee earlier this week — the team is now pulling back from that timeline. The knee troubles, which have been an ongoing issue, are forcing the front office to reconsider how aggressively they deploy Ohtani as a pitcher going forward.

Shaikin’s reporting frames this as something bigger than a simple schedule adjustment. He writes that Ohtani’s knee problems could force the Dodgers to confront a future without his pitching contributions earlier than anyone anticipated. That’s a significant shift in tone from even a few days ago, when the club seemed confident the injection would be enough to keep him on track for his Wednesday start. Something clearly changed between then and now, and the Dodgers aren’t treating this as routine anymore.

Ohtani’s pitching has been a revelation since he returned to the mound following Tommy John surgery. The whole point of his record-breaking contract — $700 million over 10 years, with most of the money deferred — was predicated on getting the full two-way experience. As a hitter, he remains one of the most dangerous players in baseball, but his pitching is what elevates him into a category occupied by nobody else in the modern game. Losing that, even temporarily, changes the calculus for a roster already dealing with significant injury issues elsewhere.

The left knee has been a recurring concern. Ohtani dealt with knee trouble during his time with the Angels, and wear on that joint was always going to be a long-term question given the torque his delivery generates. A lubricant injection is a maintenance procedure, not a fix for structural damage, and the fact that the Dodgers are backing off his schedule even after administering it suggests the knee didn’t respond the way they hoped.

For the Dodgers, this compounds an already complicated stretch. Will Smith has been shut down from all baseball activities due to neck pain, leaving a hole behind the plate. Several key players are working through rehab assignments. The pitching staff, while deep on paper, is being asked to cover a lot of ground. If Ohtani’s mound work gets shelved for any extended period, the pressure to acquire pitching at the trade deadline — already significant given the Skubal rumors — ratchets up considerably.

I think the front office is being smart here. Pushing Ohtani to pitch through a balky knee in July, when the goal is October, would be reckless. But Shaikin is right to flag the bigger picture. If this knee doesn’t cooperate, the Dodgers may have to accept that Ohtani the pitcher is a part-time asset at best for the foreseeable future. That’s not a disaster — Ohtani the hitter alone is worth his spot in the lineup every day — but it changes how you build the roster around him. We’re not at the panic stage, but this one bears watching closely over the next few weeks.

Source(s): Jack Harris (New York Post) | Bill Shaikin (Los Angeles Times) | First reported: July 19, 2026 6:16 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers