The Los Angeles Dodgers held a mid-series coaching staff meeting to discuss benching Shohei Ohtani after he went hitless in the first two games of the National League Championship Series. The team trails 0–2. The player carrying a $700 million contract has recorded zero hits in eight at-bats with five strikeouts.
Manager Dave Roberts convened pitching coach Mark Prior, hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc, and bench coach Danny Lehmann between Games 2 and 3. The group reviewed swing metrics, opposing pitcher matchups, and whether a reset day would serve the franchise better than continued at-bats from a player pressing. No decision was announced publicly, but the fact of the meeting itself—rare for a healthy superstar in October—signals how quickly $70 million annual payroll allocations become liabilities when the bat goes silent.
The calculus is narrow. Ohtani signed the richest contract in professional sports history last December, structured with $680 million deferred to 2034–2043 at zero interest, which reduced the present-day value to roughly $460 million for luxury tax purposes. That deferrals architecture allowed Los Angeles to add Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325 million, twelve years) and Tyler Glasnow (extension, $136.6 million, five years) in the same off-season. The roster construction works only if Ohtani performs as both a top-five hitter and eventual two-way asset after Tommy John recovery. Right now, he is performing as neither, and the Dodgers are two losses from elimination.
Benching him creates a different problem. Ohtani's endorsement portfolio—New Balance, Fanatics, Topps, Salesforce, others—runs north of $50 million annually and depends on visibility. Sponsors pay for October at-bats in prime time, not October rest days. The team also sold 17,000 additional season-ticket deposits in the forty-eight hours after announcing his signing, per internal figures shared with the Los Angeles Times in January. Those buyers expect to see him play. The brand damage of sitting a healthy Ohtani in an elimination window compounds if the Dodgers lose anyway, because the narrative becomes not savvy management but panic.
Roberts has benched high-salary players before—Yasiel Puig sat twice in the 2018 playoffs for defensive lapses, and Cody Bellinger was pulled mid-series in 2021 for similar offensive drought—but neither carried Ohtani's payroll weight or global sponsor base. The front office, led by president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, built the entire 2024 financial model around Ohtani's deferred money creating roster flexibility now. If that roster flexibility cannot absorb two bad games without benching him, the model's margin for error was thinner than advertised.
The meeting also reviewed whether Ohtani's rehabilitation from elbow surgery, completed in September 2023, is affecting his swing mechanics under postseason stress. He has been a designated hitter all season, with no mound work planned until 2025. His regular-season line—.310/.390/.654 with 54 home runs—suggested full health, but October torque is different. The Dodgers have access to biomechanics data from Driveline Baseball, swing-tracking from Hittrax, and pitch-by-pitch video synced to exit velocity. If the data shows something correctable, sitting him makes less sense than adjusting his approach between at-bats. If the data shows nothing correctable, sitting him makes no sense at all, because the problem is mental, and benching accelerates the spiral.
The other variable is roster composition. The Dodgers carry thirteen pitchers and thirteen position players, leaving little bench depth. Sitting Ohtani likely means more at-bats for Chris Taylor or Jason Heyward, both of whom hit below .240 in September. The downgrade is steep. The leverage calculation tilts further if the opposing pitcher is right-handed, because Ohtani's splits heavily favor right-handed pitching, and the NLCS opponent has started righties in both games.
The franchise has also begun internal discussions on what a benching does to 2025 leverage in contract negotiations with free agents and arbitration cases. If the front office benches its $70 million annual player in October 2024, does that embolden agents to demand shorter deals with more opt-outs, knowing the team will prioritize short-term performance over long-term investment protection? The signaling risk is real. The Dodgers already face $185 million in deferred obligations to Ohtani alone starting in 2034. Adding more short-term money to the active roster because free agents no longer trust the org's patience would compress future flexibility.
Roberts is expected to announce his Game 3 lineup roughly ninety minutes before first pitch. If Ohtani's name is absent, watch for sponsor statements within twenty-four hours—New Balance in particular, which tied its entire 2024 MLB marketing spend to his at-bats. Watch also for player agent gossip in the next arbitration cycle, expected to open mid-November. And watch for Japanese media reaction, which moves yen and shapes how Nippon Professional Baseball stars view MLB offers going forward.
The Dodgers trail 0–2. The meeting happened. The benching is now a live option, not a hypothetical.
The takeaway
The Dodgers are discussing benching their **$700M** player mid-NLCS, testing whether elite roster construction can tolerate elite player failure in October.
Editorial & Disclosure Notice: This article was written with artificial intelligence from public sources and is published without individual human review. Artificial intelligence and other digital tools are also used for research, analysis, editing, formatting, and production. Errors, omissions, outdated information, or inaccuracies may occur. References to companies, brands, products, services, organizations, or individuals are for informational and editorial purposes and do not imply endorsement, sponsorship, affiliation, partnership, or approval unless expressly stated. All trademarks and other intellectual property remain the property of their respective owners. Opinions, analysis, estimates, and commentary are informational only and should not be construed as financial, investment, legal, tax, medical, procurement, or other professional advice. Information may be corrected, clarified, or updated after publication. Corrections or removal requests: jenny@pops4.com.
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