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ESPN News Services
Shohei Ohtani will be placed on the Los Angeles Angels‘ disabled list with a sprained elbow ligament and will miss at least three weeks before the club re-evaluates him.
The Angels announced the potentially serious injury for their two-way rookie sensation on Friday before opening a road trip in Minnesota. Ohtani, who will turn 24 next month, underwent injections of platelet-rich plasma and stem cells Thursday in Los Angeles.
The Angels said Ohtani’s ulnar collateral ligament has a Grade 2 sprain, which typically indicates some degree of damage but not a complete tear. Ohtani’s injury doesn’t always require surgery, while Grade 3 sprains are usually repaired by Tommy John surgery.
If the PRP and stem-cell processes do not work, Tommy John surgery is a possibility. Asked if Ohtani can avoid that, Angels general manager Billy Eppler said, “We’re hopeful that he can, that it is completely treatable with the biologic prescription the doctors recommended.”
“I’m just going to take every day as it comes and put him on this course of recovery and strengthening for the next three weeks and then deal with what we’ve got to deal with in three weeks’ time,” Eppler added.
Documents made available in December showed that Ohtani had a Grade 1 sprain of his UCL, but Eppler said at the time that there were “no signs of acute trauma” in the ligament.
Ohtani left his last pitching start after four innings Wednesday against Kansas City, but the Angels said it was due to the reoccurrence of a blister on his pitching fingers. Ohtani also left his only loss of the year against Boston in April due to a blister.
Eppler said that while Ohtani was getting treatment for the blister, he mentioned that his elbow was stiff.
“As the game adrenaline wore off, he said, ‘My elbow is getting a little stiff,'” Eppler said.
The Japanese right-hander is 4-1 with a 3.10 ERA in his debut North American season, getting 61 strikeouts with a dazzling mix of 100 mph fastballs and precipitous breaking pitches. The Angels’ opponents are batting just .202 in his nine starts.
Ohtani also is batting .289 with 6 home runs and 20 RBIs as baseball’s most successful two-way player in decades. The designated hitter has cooled off only slightly after an impressive start at the plate, batting .257 with two homers since April.
Eppler acknowledged that if Ohtani were only a hitter, he “probably” would be able to keep playing with such an injury.
“But that’s not his circumstance, and that’s not how we want to utilize the player,” Eppler said. “It was determined that any unique swing or variability [in Ohtani’s elbow] could impose some small percentage increase in risk, so that’s why we’re going to give it the three-week time period right now to assess and then make a determination at that time.”
The Angels have attempted to keep Ohtani fresh by giving him at least a week of mound rest between his pitching starts, adhering to a disciplined plan drawn up by Eppler. Although Ohtani was eager for more playing time, the Angels didn’t want to rush him into a frantic pace in his first big-league season.
Among pitchers with at least five starts this season, Ohtani has the 3rd-highest average velocity on fastballs (96.8 mph) behind Luis Severino and Noah Syndergaard (both 97.6), according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Any long-term injury for Ohtani could be crushing to the Angels (35-28), who are trying to keep pace with Seattle and Houston in the high-powered AL West race. They have won four straight and five of six heading into the opener of their nine-game road trip against the Twins.
Information from The Associated Press was included in this report.