Shohei Ohtani’s elbow injury: Six questions that will shape what comes next

The initial news reverberated through the sport like a shockwave. Shohei Ohtani, this unthinkable unicorn pushing baseball beyond its preconceived limits, was hurt.

And then, the questions started coming. Ohtani, now with a tear in the UCL of his pitching elbow, is months away from becoming a free agent. What does it mean for his market, his destination, his future?

There’s still a lot to learn, and much no one can answer right now. Some answers might not even be known yet to Ohtani himself. But at least a few answers will arrive in time.

Here’s what’s top of mind in the immediate aftermath:

How committed is Ohtani to remaining a two-way player?

Ohtani has yet to speak publicly since the UCL tear, but history tells us he’s likely to do everything in his power to continue both pitching and hitting. Ohtani once desired to come to the big leagues out of high school. Had that happened, he might never have become the two-way player we know today. Ohtani ultimately stayed in Japan and thrived as a pitcher and hitter with the Nippon-Ham Fighters.

Even after Ohtani came to the U.S. and had Tommy John surgery in 2018, he rehabbed and went on to do things never before seen in Major League Baseball.

“Ideally, if it comes down to them telling me to just focus on hitting or focus on one thing pitching, I will listen,” Ohtani said in 2020. “But ideally, I would like to leave the window open for me to do both.

“If the possibility is there, I still want to try (pitching). The Angels signed me thinking I’m going to be a two-way player. I just need to get healthy, back on the mound and try to accomplish it.”

Another injury and the potential of another surgery could muddy the waters. But given everything we have seen from Ohtani, it is difficult to imagine a world where he does not again try to defy every preconceived notion for what is possible. — Cody Stavenhagen

Can he hit in 2024 and still rehab his elbow?

If Ohtani really does want to keep pitching at his best, then he’d likely be rolling the dice if he decides to try to hit in 2024.

A presumptive second Tommy John surgery is a bit of a dice roll to begin with. But hitting in 2024, even just as a DH, and veering off the prescribed routine for rehab, could lessen the odds he gets back to his full form as a pitcher as he wants to. The operative word becomes “risk.”

“There will be some compromise to his rehab process if he becomes a position player, depending on what his workload is, if he comes back next year,” said Dr. Chris Ahmad, the Yankees’ team physician and a surgeon who has performed Tommy John operations. “Especially in a revision second-time Tommy John, you want the rehab to go perfectly.”

Time is required and the rehab process is necessarily slow. Ahmad used the analogy of rubbing one’s…