LOS ANGELES -- With every game that Shohei Ohtani misses, the possibility of the two-way superstar landing on the injured list grows.
Ohtani was out of the starting lineup for the third straight day for Saturday night's game against the Nationals at Dodger Stadium. He is managing multiple health concerns, including lingering issues with his left knee, right biceps and neck.
While Ohtani is considered day to day, the Dodgers have no expectation of when he could return to the lineup. Now that he has been out of action for three days -- the maximum length of time an IL stint can be backdated -- L.A. must weigh whether it makes sense to make an IL move with Ohtani now or continue to keep him on the active roster.
"If three days [go by] and we're back in the same spot two days later, then it wasn't the right decision," manager Dave Roberts said Friday. "There are scenarios where we don't make the move, and he's still active, so I don't know what that looks like. But there's not just two ways to do this."
The minimum-length IL stint for two-way players is 15 days, like with pitchers.
Dating back to June, Ohtani has dealt with multiple lingering physical issues, including left knee soreness that has been the primary reason that he has not pitched since July 3. A right biceps issue first affected him as a hitter, then went on to affect his pitching ramp-up. He showed visible discomfort in the last game he started on Wednesday, going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts, with Roberts later revealing that Ohtani's neck was bothering him.
Since Ohtani restarted a throwing program on Aug. 8, he is hitting .204 (19-for-93) with a .704 OPS. He has struck out 32 times in that span. Overall this season, Ohtani has a .906 OPS with 30 homers and a 1.79 ERA in 14 pitching starts.