This doesn’t sound good for Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese two-way player:
Shohei Ohtani will be placed on the Los Angeles Angels’ disabled list with a sprained elbow ligament and miss at least three weeks before the club re-evaluates him.
The Angels announced the potentially serious injury for their two-way rookie sensation Friday before opening a road trip in Minnesota. Ohtani, who will turn 24 next month, underwent injections of platelet-rich plasma and stem cells Thursday in Los Angeles.
The Angels said Ohtani’s ulnar collateral ligament has a Grade 2 sprain, which typically indicates some degree of damage, but not a complete tear. Ohtani’s injury doesn’t always require surgery, while Grade 3 sprains are usually repaired by Tommy John surgery.
This sounds similar to the Masahiro Tanaka elbow injury, and Tanaka was able to avoid surgery. It’s too bad, and Ohtani was doing something not seen in a century.
Grade 1 strain last year. Grade 2 this year. The trend is ominous. Just get the surgery Ohtani and you can DH to start the year next year and be ready to pitch in the second half.
Otherwise the risk is he misses 3 months and comes back for one month in September and then blows out the elbow in ST and misses all of 2019 and half of 2020
Horrible news. Bad for him and bad for baseball.