Shohei Ohtani Injury News: Angels Still Waiting on Second Opinion for UCL Tear

For now, he will continue to help the team with his bat.

Nothing in sports is guaranteed. Nothing is promised. Organizations have no idea what will happen in the field of play, and unfortunately, injuries are a part of the games.

It’s one of the worst parts of sports, and it can be hard to watch when a player goes down. It’s tough to see any player get hurt, but when the face of a league suffers an injury, the entire sport holds its breath.

That’s what happened this week in baseball as Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani suffered another torn UCL. The severity of the injury isn’t known at this time, but it could require him to undergo another Tommy John Surgery.

The hope is that he can avoid surgery altogether, and just rehab the injury. But as he and the team search for other options, Ohtani will remain as a batter for the rest of the season.

“He’s going to play,” general manager Perry Minasian said before the game. “As far as the second opinion, we are working on that. As we sit here today, he’s going to play until he tells us he’s not. Obviously, he’s having a special year and is a big part of this club. We’re excited to still have him in the lineup.”

Per MLB.com

With a torn UCL, players can still swing the bat. So Ohtani can provide that aspect of his incredible skillset at least. But with the Angels pretty much out of the playoff picture, should he continue playing?

Only Ohtani can decide that for himself, and it’s in his nature to keep going. He wants to help his team win at any cost, and we are seeing that play out in front of us.

“He has a good idea of how this goes,” Minasian said. “But we’re not looking that far. We’re worried about today. He loves playing. That’s what he does. The fact that there’s an opportunity to still play games and help us try to win, says a lot about him.”

Per MLB.com

Incredibly, he is still willing to go out there and play. Some players would let the injury get them down, but Ohtani seems to be in good spirits. It speaks to his level of competition and why he is the face of the MLB.

But his impending free agency does need to be considered here. Both he and the Angels must make a calculated decision going forward to make sure that he doesn't do anything else to hurt his value.

This will be something to monitor going forward in the season and will be interesting to see play out. But for now, fans still get to see him continue his MVP season with the bat, and we are all thankful for that.