Ohtani Is Finally Going on the IL — and the Dodgers Are Handing De Paula the DH Job
GOATIFYShohei Ohtani’s late-season injury management has finally moved from daily caution to a formal injured-list stint. The Los Angeles Dodgers are giving their biggest star a recovery window for his left knee and right biceps while using the open roster spot to promote top prospect Josue De Paula directly from Double-A.
The move is less about an emergency than October. Los Angeles has won seven straight games and pushed its magic number to clinch the NL West down to six, giving the club room to protect Ohtani instead of asking him to grind through a compromised September.
Ohtani’s timetable is now built around the postseason
Ohtani had already sat for six of seven games as the Dodgers tried to settle the knee and biceps problems without removing him from the active roster. The scattered rest days were not creating the clean reset the team wanted. A formal stint gives him roughly two weeks without the nightly pressure to pinch-hit or return before his body is ready.
The Dodgers expect Ohtani to be eligible to return around Sept. 22, leaving only a handful of regular-season games. That is a short runway, but still enough time for several starts at designated hitter and enough plate appearances for Los Angeles to evaluate how his swing and mobility respond before the postseason.
The recent numbers make the decision easier to defend. Since Aug. 18, Ohtani has hit .130/.288/.241 with three extra-base hits and 22 strikeouts in 66 plate appearances. His pitching season is already effectively finished after his last start on July 3. The Dodgers therefore have one immediate objective: get the hitter healthy enough to influence October.
This will be Ohtani’s first trip to the injured list since September 2023, his final season with the Angels. The Dodgers do not need him to prove anything in the standings right now. They need the version of Ohtani who can change a postseason series with one swing.
Josue De Paula gets a rare direct jump from Double-A
The corresponding roster move gives the final weeks another storyline. De Paula, 21, is expected to receive most of the available designated-hitter work while Ohtani rests. He has hit .303/.341/.547 at Double-A with 27 home runs, 104 RBI and 31 stolen bases in 124 games, production that has pushed him into the top tier of prospects in baseball.
Los Angeles is skipping Triple-A entirely. During Andrew Friedman’s tenure running baseball operations, the Dodgers have not previously promoted a prospect directly from Double-A to the majors. That makes this more than a temporary roster patch. It is a genuine test of whether De Paula’s offensive tools are ready to translate immediately against major-league pitching.
The setting should help him. The Dodgers are winning, the division is close to being secured and De Paula can focus on at-bats rather than being asked to rescue a struggling team. If he hits, Los Angeles may discover another useful postseason option. If he struggles, the organization still gains valuable information while Ohtani receives the recovery time he needs.
By Ohtani’s expected return window, the Dodgers could have their superstar in a healthier place and De Paula carrying more than a week of major-league experience. That is a better trade than squeezing a few extra September games out of an injured superstar.
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