Shohei Ohtani’s medical chart may be the most consequential document in baseball. The two-way experiment that produced four MVPs and the sport’s biggest contract has also produced two elbow surgeries, a shoulder operation, a knee procedure, and two full seasons without pitching, and every new twinge sends a shiver through Los Angeles. That includes this week: Ohtani exited Friday night’s game against the Padres with right biceps tightness, sat out the July 4 game as a precaution, and could return as soon as Saturday, with his next pitching start still penciled in for July 10.
The scare lands in the middle of a paradox. Ohtani is currently having the best pitching season of his life, a 1.79 ERA through 14 starts, two years removed from his second elbow reconstruction, while quietly managing a knee that’s been inflamed since June and a blister on his throwing hand. His durability is both the miracle and the permanent question of his career.
The chart below covers the full Shohei Ohtani injury picture: this week’s situation, his complete injury timeline from Japan to now, the two elbow surgeries compared, what he accomplished while hurt, and how the Dodgers protect their $700 million investment. Take a look, then we’ll break it all down.
Contents
The scare of the week
The latest entry in the Ohtani injury file arrived Friday night against San Diego. After throwing a career-high 110 pitches over six innings, Ohtani was lifted for a pinch hitter in the seventh, and afterward revealed he’d felt tightness in his right biceps on his final swing. Everything about the aftermath was designed to lower the temperature: he called the exit precautionary, noted the same sensation appeared and vanished quickly two months ago, and said he felt able to play. The Dodgers held him out of the July 4 game anyway, with a possible return Saturday and his next start still set for July 10 in Arizona. It’s the third item on his 2026 maintenance list, joining the left knee inflammation he’s managed since June 10 and a blister on his throwing hand, none of which has slowed a 1.79 ERA.
The full history: an arm’s story
Read the timeline top to bottom and the theme is singular: the right arm that makes him historic is also the thing that keeps breaking. The ankle and thigh problems that limited his final year in Japan were the outlier; since arriving in MLB, the file is dominated by the elbow. A UCL sprain in June 2018 was treated with PRP and stem cells, bought him three months, and ended in Tommy John surgery that October. The rehab year cost him all of 2019 on the mound and ended with a bonus procedure, surgery on a bipartite left kneecap. A flexor strain wiped out his 2020 pitching after less than two innings. Then came the golden stretch, two fully healthy two-way seasons in 2021 and 2022, before the elbow went again in August 2023, this time repaired with a hybrid internal-brace procedure rather than a second full reconstruction. The one major exception to the arm’s monopoly: the left shoulder he subluxed stealing a base in the 2024 World Series, played through, and had repaired that November.
Two rebuilds, two peaks
What separates Ohtani’s surgical history from every cautionary tale is what came after each operation. Both elbow procedures were performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache, both cost exactly one season of pitching and almost nothing at the plate, and both were followed by the best baseball of his life to that point: the 2018 reconstruction gave way to his unanimous 2021 MVP, and the 2023 repair has given way to this, a 2026 season in which his 1.79 ERA would rank among the very best in baseball. Second elbow operations have ended or diminished dozens of pitching careers. Ohtani’s produced a better pitcher, which is either a testament to modern surgical technique, his rehab obsessiveness, or the general rule that none of the normal rules apply to him.
The injuries that built a legend
There’s also no understanding Ohtani without the perverse productivity of his hurt seasons. In 2019, rehabbing from Tommy John, he simply hit: .286 with 18 home runs. In 2024, unable to pitch, he authored the only 50-homer, 50-steal season in history, won the MVP, and delivered a World Series, playing the end of it on a freshly damaged shoulder. His 2025 comeback season ended with 55 home runs, a fourth MVP, and an NLCS MVP that included ten strikeouts on the mound and three homers at the plate in a single game. His injuries have functioned less like interruptions than like forced experiments proving he’d be an inner-circle superstar at either job alone.
Final Word
Shohei Ohtani’s injury status right now: day-to-day with minor right biceps tightness, expected back within days, next start July 10, while managing knee inflammation and a blister in the background. His injury history: two elbow surgeries, a shoulder repair, a knee procedure, and an ankle operation across a decade of two-way play, with two full pitching seasons lost and, somehow, an MVP or a ring harvested from nearly every rehab. The arm is the risk the Dodgers priced into $700 million, and so far, every time it’s broken, he’s come back better.
The injuries are one thread of the Ohtani story we’ve been covering. For the full career numbers, see our Shohei Ohtani stats breakdown, the deal that bet on his health in Shohei Ohtani’s salary and contract, and the collectibles side in Shohei Ohtani rookie card values.