Dodgers can learn from Mariners' Cal Raleigh failure amid Shohei Ohtani nightmare

The Los Angeles Dodgers are doing it. They're actually thinking about benching Shohei Ohtani. And if there's anything they can learn from what the Seattle Mariners went through with Cal Raleigh, it's that banged-up players can't just fix themselves. Not playing that game is the only winning move.

The situation with Ohtani really is that dire. He last homered on August 18, and is 14-for-90 in his last 24 games overall. That includes the Dodgers' first six games of the playoffs, the last two of which have seen them fall into an 0-2 hole to the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS.

And so, the bench is under consideration. Ken Rosenthal and Katie Woo of The Athletic report that the team is considering sitting Ohtani in favor of rookie Josue De Paula for Game 3 on Wednesday. Given that Ohtani had already moved down in Dave Roberts' batting order, it's the next logical step.

There is a somewhat conflicting report from Alden Gonzalez of ESPN, who claims that the Dodgers will continue playing Ohtani "if he deems himself healthy." He certainly deserves that kind of respect, yet the Dodgers have every reason to be skeptical. Ohtani himself admitted earlier this month that his left knee and right biceps were still bothering him. Evidently, the two weeks he spent on the injured list in September were both way overdue and not nearly long enough.

To watch Ohtani play the game right now is to behold not a four-time MVP and all-time great, but some kind of inept impostor. He is too hurt to pitch, and he's swinging the bat like a wounded sailor trying to fend off a sea beast with an oar. It's ugly.

Albeit with lesser stakes, the Mariners went through something very similar with Cal Raleigh

Though we only recently found out about his left shoulder, it's the oblique injury that stands out as the turning point in Raleigh's 2026 season. The strain to his right side happened sometime in late April, and yet the 2025 AL MVP runner-up did not go on the injured list until mid-May.

Remember the damage that happened in the interim? Well, here's a reminder: Raleigh was 0-for-38 at one point, and his last 11 games before the IL stint saw him go 2-for-44 with 19 strikeouts.

The vibe of Raleigh in that moment was the same vibe as Ohtani in this moment. It was a case of an MVP-caliber slugger who clearly wasn't right. The numbers provided compelling evidence, yet were somehow not as compelling as the eye test. As with Ohtani now, every swing Raleigh took while he was trying to play through his oblique injury was further proof the Mariners were wasting time.

Once the Mariners finally gave in to reality and put Raleigh on the IL, things turned for the better. They didn't go 16-13 while he was out because his replacements at catcher were surprise stars. It was good enough that neither Mitch Garver nor Jhonny Pereda was a black hole in the middle of the lineup, as Raleigh had been.

So, you have to hand it to the Dodgers for seeing the writing on the wall by weighing the bench for Ohtani. He is not only not helping, but actively hurting them right now. It's a dang blessing that they have De Paula to fall back on. His 11 games with the Dodgers at the end of the year yielded a 1.081 OPS, with more walks (11) and extra-base hits (6) than strikeouts (5).

To be sure, that the Mariners were too slow to sideline Raleigh is just one of many things they did wrong this year. They might also have brought him back too quick, given that his first 49 games off the IL yielded only a .551 OPS.

Regardless, there's a lesson that the Mariners learned the hard way so that the Dodgers can now learn an easier way: A player can both be more talented than most and no better than the rest when fighting through pain.

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