ANAHEIM — The Angels didn’t put Shohei Ohtani on the injured list, but they didn’t put him in the lineup either.
A day after Ohtani was scratched because of what the Angels called oblique tightness, Ohtani reported that he was feeling well enough to play, but the Angels said no.
“We’re still evaluating it right now,” Manager Phil Nevin said on Tuesday. “He feels a lot better.”
A decision on Ohtani’s oblique carries extra weight because the season has less than a month to go, and Ohtani is already facing a procedure to repair a torn ligament in his elbow, agent Nez Balelo said on Monday.
Once Ohtani is done as a hitter, his season – and perhaps his Angels career – will be over. Ohtani, of course, is set to be a free agent at the end of the season.
Ohtani was taking batting practice when he felt something in his oblique on Monday afternoon, and he underwent tests on Monday and Tuesday.
Apparently, none of those tests were conclusive enough for the Angels to have a definitive statement about Ohtani’s immediate future as of a few hours before Tuesday’s game.
Nevin was clear that the Angels – not Ohtani – decided to sit him on Tuesday.
“He really wants to play right now,” said Nevin, whose team is 10 games below .500 and no longer in contention for a playoff berth. “This is something that he’s upset by. He wants to play. And we want him to. Of course, we do. It’s a credit to who he is. If you start something you’re gonna finish it. He wants to be out there. I know he does. But right now, we’re still evaluating, to see where we’re at. Those things can be finicky at times. So we’ve got to make sure. That’s why we’re diving into some tests. When we get all that information, you guys will know.”
Tuesday’s game will be the fourth game this season when Ohtani, 29, has not been in the lineup.
During other instances this season when it seemed like Ohtani might need a day off, he told Nevin that he was able to…
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