Angels’ Shohei Ohtani tears his UCL, won’t pitch again this season

ANAHEIM — Shohei Ohtani has a torn ulnar collateral ligament, ending his season as a pitcher and dramatically shifting his prospects for what was expected to be a record-setting free agency this winter.

Ohtani left the mound on Wednesday afternoon after just 26 pitches with what the team initially described as “fatigue.” Manager Phil Nevin said Ohtani “didn’t feel any pain.”

After the second game, though, the Angels revealed that imaging between games identified the tear. The Angels and Ohtani have not yet decided if he will undergo a second Tommy John surgery or how much he will hit for the rest of the season. Ohtani is seeking a second opinion.

“It’s a tough day for him,” General Manager Perry Minasian said. “Tough day for all of us.”

Ohtani did not speak to the media on Wednesday, between games or after their doubleheader loss to the Cincinnati Reds. The Angels lost the first game 9-4 and the second game 7-3, losing for the 16th time in 21 games.

Ohtani is set to be a free agent at the end of the season, and his contract was expected to be at least $500 million with some suggesting he could receive $700 million. With his future as a pitcher in doubt, it is unlikely that he would be able to reach that level.

“I believe he’ll be back,” said Minasian, who didn’t know the grade of Ohtani’s ligament tear. “And he’ll be able to do both again, at a very high level.”

The Ohtani news was the major blow, but the Angels also announced that they were going to place outfielder Mike Trout back on the injured list to give him more time to recover from the fractured hamate bone he suffered in July. Trout had surgery to remove the bone, and the three-time American League MVP missed seven weeks, which is within the four- to eight-week time frame for the surgery.

Trout played on Tuesday night, but felt too much discomfort, prompting the Angels to put him back on the injured list to give him more time.

“You need your hands to hit,” Minasian said. “It’s a significant injury that he’s coming back from and the last thing you want to do is him start compensating for his hand and doing other things and hurting other body parts. So we’re gonna give it 10 days to let it calm down. He’s not going to swing a bat for the next couple days. There’s no timeframe. We’re gonna go day to day and you’ll see where it goes.”

As for Ohtani, this is the second time he’s suffered a torn UCL.

Ohtani suffered a tear during the 2018 season, resulting in surgery that prevented him from pitching until 2020. He did not return to the lineup as a hitter until May 2019.

When he got back to the mound in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he made just two appearances before suffering another injury, which put his career as a two-way player in question. He responded with a sensational 2021 season, in which he was the unanimous AL MVP. He was the runner-up for the award in 2022, and he is expected to easily win the award again this year, despite this injury.

Ohtani, 29, finishes his 2023 season on the mound with a 10-5 record and a 3.14 ERA in 132 innings. He returned to the lineup as the DH for the second game of the doubleheader even though he had received the diagnosis between games. Ohtani doubled in five trips to the plate. He is hitting .304 with a league-leading 44 homers and an OPS of 1.069.

“He’s a mentally strong individual,” Minasian said. “To do what he does. How he handled it. The fact that he played (the second game) to me is beyond impressive.”

Minasian said they haven’t yet determined if Ohtani will accompany the team on its three-city trip, which begins on Friday in New York.

“I think he needs time to wrap his head around it, talk to the people close to him,” Minasian said. “We’re in the process of getting second opinions. Once the information is there, he’ll make the right decision on what he wants to do, and we’ll support him, whatever he decides. … I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in New York and he’s in the lineup. I know how bad he wants to play.”

Minasian said that Ohtani had not mentioned any pain in his elbow as he went through a tumultuous couple of months, with blister issues, a broken fingernail and cramping. He asked to skip his previous start, in Texas, because of what he described to the Angels as arm fatigue.

“He never complained about anything,” Minasian said. “He had cramps. He was dehydrated. But today is the day he came out of the game and said, ‘Hey, I have some pain in the elbow area.’ It’s the first day we heard about any type of pain.”

Ohtani’s velocity was slightly down throughout the first five batters that he faced. In between, he slugged his MLB-leading 44th home run, a two-run blast in the bottom of the first.

In the top of the second, he threw a 2-and-2 fastball to Christian Encarnacion-Strand and then he looked toward the Angels’ dugout and shook his head. Nevin and head athletic trainer Mike Frostad came to the mound, and Ohtani left after a short discussion.

“Velocity ticked up there in the first … in the second it was down,” Nevin said. “I was noticing the shapes on his pitches, which we have information on, just weren’t the same. I just saw a look after a pitch so I decided to go out there and check on him.”

Ohtani had remained in the game as the DH on other occasions when he had issues with his fingers, but this time the Angels wanted to be more careful, Nevin said.

“This is a little different when he’s talking about his arm,” Nevin said.

Ohtani has a 3.14 ERA in 132 innings this season. He had been on pace for career-highs in innings and starts before he began having issues in early July.

Minasian reiterated that he didn’t suspect Ohtani was hiding any injury prior to Wednesday.

“Our relationship over the last three years is based off communication and trust,” Minasian said. “We trust him. He trusts us. We listened to him. He knows his body. He knows where he’s at. He needed a blow, needed to skip a start. We said fine. This was something that happened today. I don’t know what particular pitch, but I think we saw a decline in velo.

“It’s unfortunate, but it happens. If I was to bet on anybody bouncing back, he’d be the guy.”

Perry Minasian provides injury updates on Trout and Ohtani@Angels | #GoHalos pic.twitter.com/S0mQguxGnQ

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) August 24, 2023