The Los Angeles Dodgers are not playing their best baseball as of late, and their offense is slumping.
Many of the Dodgers' hitters are slumping right now, including Shohei Ohtani. Some of their stars have struggled all year, but this month the team ranks 23rd in runs scored. Ohtani is an MVP candidate, and if the team wants to get back on track, it will likely need to start with him.
Ohtani is capable of carrying the offense when he's hot, but this month he has a .241 batting average and a .795 OPS. A .795 OPS is very good, but for Ohtani's standards, it's not great. In his last 10 games, he is hitting .125 with a .455 OPS.
Dave Roberts has been reluctant to take him out of the lineup, and the team is very high on what he does at the plate. Injuries have kept him off the mound, but Roberts recently noted that the team thinks his offense is so valuable that they do not want to push him to get back on the mound if it puts his offense at risk. It's possible that Ohtani's injuries are hurting his offense, but he has not noted that.
“I think that if I knew, if I heard at all that was affecting his swing, his biceps or knee was bothering him, I would absolutely be open to giving him a day off,” Roberts said, per The Athletic's Katie Woo. “But I haven’t heard otherwise.”
Even if it's not injuries that are holding him back, he is clearly not hitting well right now. The Dodgers are about to play six straight series against sub-.500 teams. Giving Ohtani a day off and then having him hit against struggling teams could allow him to get hot again.
The Dodgers are three games back of the Milwaukee Brewers for the No. 1 seed in the National League and the best record in baseball. The Atlanta Braves have the tiebreaker over the Dodgers, so they need to finish with a better record than them to secure a first-round bye.