Angels News: GM Perry Minasian Doesn’t Blame Workload for Shohei Ohtani Injury

The Angels worst fears may have been realized on Wednesday.

Right as the news broke that Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani had suffered a torn UCL, the entire baseball world held its collective breath. It’s the kind of news that all fans of the sport saw as devastating.

It sucks when anyone gets injured. But when the face of the league goes down, it feels a little different.

Ohtani had been dealing with some arm fatigue throughout the season, even skipping his start last week to rest. But nobody thought it would lead to this.

This isn’t the first time that Ohtani has suffered a torn UCL. Last time, it required Tommy John Surgery, so everyone involved is hoping that he doesn’t need to go down that route this time around.

He has been a major part of the Angels limited success this season. Ohtani is the likely American League MVP this year, even with the injury. His workload is crazy due to his two-way abilities, but General Manager Perry Minasian doesn’t believe that it was the cause of the injury.

#Angels GM Perry Minasian, when asked if heavy workload caught up with Shohei Ohtani: "No. He performed multiple years doing what he's done. Injuries happen. I've seen pitchers with a lot less workload have these injuries. When you throw with the velo he does, injuries occur."

— Mike DiGiovanna (@MikeDiGiovanna) August 24, 2023

To his credit, pitchers go down for much smaller things. It probably doesn’t help that Ohtani plays on both sides of the ball, but he is a special player. He does things that nobody has ever really seen before so it’s not fair to blame the injury on the workload.

He is done pitching for the season, but it remains to be seen if he will still hit. The Angels will do further testing to see the severity of the injury, and then make a decision.

Plus, with his impending free agency coming up in a few months, it could be in his best interest to shut it down for the season. However, that isn’t in his nature as he will want to come back to help his team. But with the Angels basically out of the playoff hunt, it could be time to shelf him.

Injuries are simply an unfortunate part of sports. It sucks to see a player like Ohtani go down, but that is just part of the game. The hope is that he can come back sooner rather than later and be the same player dominating both sides of the ball.