The Los Angeles Angels have placed Shohei Ohtani on the Injured List, ruling him out for the remainder of the 2023 season.
The 2023 Los Angeles Angels deserve a 30 for 30 ESPN docuseries. With the two best players of our generation, the Angels are 22 games under .500 with less than two weeks left in the season.
The Japanese Unicorn is still locked for his second American League MVP in the past three years. But on top of Ohtani’s oblique injury, he has a torn UCL, significantly reducing the number on his upcoming off-season contract. Ohtani likely won’t pitch next season as he rehabs the vital throwing muscle in his right elbow.
Ohtani is said to have tweaked his right oblique on September 4th during batting practice, but there have been signs of this for the past two months. After big swings, Ohtani would often come up holding his side. He was seen tending to his back while rounding the bases after a home run. The Angels called this cramping, but it was clearly something more than that. The daily body abuse proved too much for the one man who could withstand it.
It was announced that Ohtani would not pitch for the rest of the season at the beginning of August, as Jeff Passen broke the news of his torn UCL. Then, the drama began, surrounding Ohtani’s relationship with the Angel’s front office.
The Angels general manager, Perry Minasian, shockingly took to the media to reveal he offered Ohtani an MRI on his finger in the weeks leading up to his torn UCL. Saying they believed it would have been caught before it was too late. He was throwing Ohtani under the bus while trying to protect himself.
Confusingly, Ohtani continued to suit up as a Designated Hitter for the entire month of August, playing all but one game until September 3rd, when the tweak happened. He hasn’t appeared in a game since then and won’t for the rest of the season. Ironically, after Ohtani tore his UCL, he was still slashing .301/.433/.553.
The situation came to a pinnacle after Friday’s 11-2 loss to the Tigers, when it was reported he had cleared out his locker and wasn’t in the building—seemingly ending his time on the Angels pathetically.
On Saturday, the team said he had packed his things because he was preparing for surgery. In more disappointing news, Saturday revealed that Ohtani is gearing up for surgery ‘ASAP,’ but whether he will get Tommy John is still unclear.
Ohtani joined the Angels with more potential than any player in history, and during his six seasons in the MLB, he has lived up to the hype. The Angels have failed the greatest player of all time, and hopefully, his next destination will help guide him to the promise land.
The Angels have been ravished by injuries all season. 15 players have been placed on the IL this season for 914 days. The Angels have spent $32 million on injured players this season.
Los Angeles was doing enough to stay in the conversation as July began. That’s when tragedy struck as the revered centerfielder Mike Trout broke his wrist on July 3rd. Trout joined third basemen Anthony Rendon on the IL. Trout and Rendon have the two biggest contracts on the Angels and have played a combined 125 games this season.
Rendon, the owner of the worst contract in the MLB, seems to love not playing and toying with the media in the process. The third basemen was signed to a seven-year, $245 million contract after a career 2019 season. He finished third in MVP voting and won the World Series with the Washington Nationals.
Since signing in sunny Los Angeles four years ago, Rendon has played in 200 of a potential 648 games. He goes out of his way to avoid media but throws them bait with a quote like “No habla ingles today.”
With a chance of a massive return for Ohtani during the trade deadline, the Angels instead decided to buy and push for a playoff spot, only sitting 3.5 games behind the last wild card spot.
During those defining two weeks after the trade deadline, the Angels had one of the worst records in baseball. They won just three games from July 31-August 15th, falling eight games back in the wild card, hammering the final nail in the coffin, and burying their 2023 playoff hopes.
The Angels front office burned their farm system while buying players at the deadline, and the owner has recently said he will trade Mike Trout if that’s what Trout wants. Angels fans could be in for a very dark period. Darker than the previous 10 years of hope-crushing baseball that Los Angeles has displayed since calling Trout to the big leagues in 2011.
One of the most dysfunctional front offices in the league has fumbled the two greatest players of our generation, with four winning seasons since Trout got called up and none since Ohtani joined the team.
MLB fans of the ’90s feel cheated out of never seeing Ken Griffey Jr. win a World Series, and MLB fans of the 2010s feel cheated out of never seeing Mike Trout play in a single playoff game. Seeing the two lead their teams in the World Baseball Classic was a joy, and it is ridiculous how it was the first time the world saw the two play meaningful baseball.
