MLB insider accuses Shohei Ohtani of misleading Dodgers about injury issues

The Los Angeles Dodgers got some rough news late Wednesday night, as Shohei Ohtani , their two-way superstar who's been dealing with nagging injuries recently, was confirmed to be headed towards the injured list.

Dealing with knee and biceps issues, Ohtani has been off the mound since early July, and recently has been in and out of the lineup. Now, with around 20 games to go in the regular season, he's hitting the 15-day injured list.

It's a delayed placement on the injured list for Ohtani after his injury issues kept him out for some time the last week or so. With that in mind, Ken Rosenthal for Foul Territory accused Ohtani of misleading the Dodgers about his injury. While not directly blaming Ohtani, this insinuation from Rosenthal, a prominent MLB insider, is significant.

MLB insider accuses Shohei Ohtani of misleading Dodgers about injuries

"A lot of people have said, and I've wondered too, is this a case of a player having too much control?" Rosenthal said. "And I don't know if it's as much that, as a player who is not communicating his physical condition well enough to the team."

Rosenthal continued: "We've seen this over the years with a lot of players who want to stay on the field; they basically lie about their injuries."

This is quite the brutal analysis from Rosenthal. He believes Ohtani had enough sway to push back his placement on the injured list, which will now force him to miss the next 15 days.

Ohtani was in the lineup on September 2, but didn't play again until September 7. Now, on September 10, he's hitting the injured list.

If the Dodgers had placed him on the IL on September 3, he would've already been well into his 15-day IL stint, and could've returned sooner rather than later.

Now, Ohtani will land on the IL and be forced to miss two weeks, which would put his return near the end of the season, if not in the postseason.

The Dodgers could've placed Ohtani on the injured list after that September 2 game, which would've had his potential return a lot sooner and given him more time to heal properly.

But Rosenthal believes that Ohtani's sway in the Dodgers' organization, by misleading the team about how bad his injury was, has led to his IL placement being delayed.

Ohtani is hitting the IL on September 10 and will miss the next 15 days. He can still return in time for the end of the regular season, but he'll cut it a lot closer than if he had hit the IL at the start of the month, when he began to miss games.