In the playoffs, Shohei Ohtani’s two-way swing turns into a lineup question for the Dodgers

The Dodgers’ postseason run has put a spotlight on a rare kind of problem: what happens when the game-altering player you built your October around looks out of sync in multiple ways at the same time. In a recent analysis, Yahoo Sports raised the possibility that Shohei Ohtani has become a liability, pointing to a pattern that has persisted beyond his inability to pitch and into his batting performances as Los Angeles continues its fight to advance.

Ohtani’s current postseason role has already been shaped by the fact that he cannot pitch, a departure from the two-way expectation that has defined his value in the Dodgers’ structure. The Yahoo piece frames the situation as more than a routine trade-off, arguing that the usual compensating benefit, his bat, has also not shown up in the way the team needs right now.

The argument is centered on timing and look, not just results. According to the Yahoo report, “one round of the playoffs” is down, with “two to go,” yet Ohtani still “looks nothing like Shohei Ohtani.” That phrasing matters because it emphasizes the feel of at-bats, plate coverage, and timing rather than treating every slump as a matter of luck. For a team’s postseason calculus, how a superstar is swinging can be as consequential as what he has done on the stat sheet.

This is where roster and lineup philosophy collide. Baseball managers typically view star slumps as fixable with volume and adjustments, but October forces tighter margins. When a player is both unavailable for one of his usual contributions and not producing at his typical offensive standard, the manager’s daily questions change from “How do we get him going?” to “How much can we afford to wait?”

Los Angeles also has to consider that postseason baseball is not just about individual matchups, it is about lineup sequencing. If Ohtani is spending meaningful at-bats not consistently threatening, the lineup becomes more fragile around him. Even if the Dodgers keep him in the middle for the occasional game-breaking swing, the surrounding spots have to do more heavy lifting to keep innings alive, protect leverage, and avoid turns where the opposition can safely pitch around the weaker section of the order.

None of this means Ohtani’s postseason run is finished, nor does it automatically dictate that he should be treated differently forever. Slumps can end abruptly, and two-way players can be affected by mechanical and physical variables that do not always show up the same way across pitching and hitting. But the key takeaway from the Yahoo framing is that the Dodgers now face a higher-stakes decision tree than the one they expected when they arrived at October.

What to watch next is whether Ohtani’s at-bats begin to show the traits that have made him reliable in high-pressure sequences, such as stronger contact quality, better recognition in counts that matter late in the at-bat, and an improved ability to turn on pitches when the game tightens. If those indicators improve, the “liability” narrative loses traction quickly. If they do not, the Dodgers’ manager will have to weigh patience against the practical necessity of scoring in every late-inning window. Either way, the postseason has made the question unavoidable: when one of Ohtani’s two pillars is already out of play, how much can his bat carry the weight before the calendar moves past them?