Los Angeles Angels: Should Shohei Ohtani be shut down in September?

Shohei Ohtani has been great offensively for the Los Angeles Angels this season but perhaps it is time to end his season a bit early.

The MLB’s unicorn is playing on the Los Angeles Angels, and no, we are not talking about Mike Trout.

For the first time since Babe Ruth laced up his cleats, baseball has a legitimate two-way player that can thrive both offensively as well as on the pitching rubber.

Shohei Ohtani has more than lived up to the hype since his MLB debut last season. The two-way sensation has been well above-average offensively and has shown flashes of being a legitimate ace at the big league level.

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In 197 games, Ohtani is batting .292 with a .896 OPS, 38 home runs and 115 RBIs. Neither of his seasons has been complete seasons and he is averaging 29 home runs and 87 RBIs per 150 games.

He has not toed the rubber this season but he did have a 3.31 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 51 and two-thirds innings pitched before being shut down with arm issues. Those arm issues eventually led to Tommy John Surgery, which led to him only being a DH this season.

Now we head into September with Ohtani hitting the cover off the ball. Ohtani is hitting .316 in the month of August despite the Angels falling out of playoff contention. However, while he is still producing, it is the Angels’ position in the standings that should lead to him being shut down the rest of the year.

I totally get the initial fan response to proposing this. Angel fans love to see Ohtani play because he is such a special player and having him sit out while being healthy could lead to some angry fans.

However, you have to think about the long-term impact. There is no way the Angels are making the playoffs this season, so having Ohtani in the lineup and potentially risking an injury is useless.

Ohtani would gain much more from spending the month focusing on getting his arm back to full strength. He already threw a bullpen session the other day and he should be given the opportunity to focus solely on these bullpen sessions moving forward.

The sooner he can build strength back in that arm and get healthy the better he will in April 2020 when the games will start to matter again. Heck, the Los Angeles Angels being so bad in the starting rotation is what has led to the team’s record, so this should definitely be fresh in the fans’ minds.

Last year the Angels messed up by not shutting Ohtani down sooner, getting the surgery done and at least giving him a chance to pitch late this season for a postseason spot. They should have learned from that experience and should be extra-cautious this go around.

There is nothing wrong with being too safe, especially when you are seven games under .500 (at the time of writing this). Because of that, the Los Angeles Angels should shutdown Shohei Ohtani.