The Los Angeles Angels‘ hopes of making the postseason get slimmer and slimmer with each passing day, and now, the team will find itself without the services of its most important starting pitcher. During the second inning of the team’s game 9-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday afternoon, Shohei Ohtani was abruptly pulled from the game with an apparent injury.
It was eventually revealed that Ohtani suffered a tear in his elbow ligament, which he learned about in between the two games of the team’s doubleheader — he played in the second game of the back-to-back despite the news, although he served as the Angels’ designated hitter. As a result, Ohtani will not pitch again during the 2023 campaign.
Shohei Ohtani has a torn UCL and won’t pitch again this season.
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) August 24, 2023
Shohei Ohtani has a tear in his UCL, Angels GM Perry Minasian told reporters in Anaheim. It is still unclear, he said, whether it will require surgery. He will not pitch the rest of the season.
Ohtani had Tommy John surgery in October 2018. The elbow continues to be the worst.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 24, 2023
“We did imaging between games and he does have a tear, and he won’t pitch the rest of the year,” general manager Perry Minasian told reporters, per MLB.com. “We’re going to get a second opinion and go from there. It’s basically day to day. Obviously, he hit. But that’s where we’re at.”
The news comes ahead of Ohtani, who just turned 29, hitting the open market as a free agent, where he is projected to received the largest contract in Major League Baseball history. This is due to the fact that he’s both a top-5 hitter and pitcher in the sport, and there’s no word on whether another procedure on his elbow would impact his ability to get a record-setting deal.
