LOS ANGELES -- While he is not quite officially ruled out from returning to the mound, Shohei Ohtani does not expect to pitch again in 2026.
"Most likely, no," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. "I'm going to be focusing on hitting moving forward."
Ohtani spoke to the media for the first time in three weeks after Monday night's 6-3 win over the Reds, when he went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts in his return to the starting lineup after four games off in order to manage lingering injuries to his left knee and right biceps.
Neither Ohtani nor the Dodgers want to compromise his ability to be an impact bat atop the lineup. He feels that he has enough time remaining in the regular season to get his swing back on track, but in order to avoid another setback, his pitching will be put on pause.
"I'm confident that my overall performance should be better moving forward," Ohtani said. "I think the thing that I was more focused on was making sure that the pitching wouldn't cause the most worst scenario, which was for me to not be able to play at all."
Ohtani has dealt with health issues since June, 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 previous game he started on Wednesday, going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts.
Not only would Ohtani have limited time to ramp back up, but the deterioration of his health and performance seemed to coincide with his buildup as a pitcher.
Since he started a throwing program on Aug. 8, Ohtani is hitting .198 (19-for-96) with a .690 OPS and 34 strikeouts. He last threw on Aug. 28, when he experienced a setback in what was viewed at the time as his final box to check before his next start on the mound.
Overall this season, Ohtani has a .902 OPS with 30 homers and a 1.79 ERA in 14 pitching starts.
Manager Dave Roberts believes that having Ohtani focus solely on hitting could help free him up at the plate.
"That's one part of the thought," Roberts said, "to sort of take the pitching off of his plate and really try to let him lock in on being a hitter and get on track. Because the last couple of weeks, he just hasn't been himself in the box."
Ohtani is hopeful that being shut down from pitching could help him recover physically as he looks to be in his best shape for what the Dodgers hope will be another deep postseason run, with a three-peat bid in play.
"That's the hope, but as long as I'm playing in games, it's not exactly the best way to recover and heal," Ohtani said. "Of course the best mode of recovery is to completely not play. But right now I just want to make sure that I'm playing, playing well and just focusing on the now."
While Ohtani went hitless in his return to the lineup, the Dodgers were encouraged to see him look better physically than he had before his four-game absence.
"I think the main thing is that there was nothing alarming from the at-bats," Roberts said. "To take four days off, to come out of it feeling good, I think that’s a win in itself."
Ohtani's two-way show will be on hold until 2027. But Ohtani intends to draw on what he went through this season in order to work toward putting a full two-way campaign together again in the future.
"Disappointing," Ohtani said. "But I want to make sure that when I look back this season, that I used this as a learning experience and make sure that I use that as something to improve upon for next season."