What to Do With Shohei Ohtani in MLB the Show 24?

No, uh, not for that, that’s not something MLB would be too crazy about SDS adding to franchise mode. Instead, I’m talking about what do about Shohei Ohtani’s status in MLB The Show 24, specifically in franchise mode.

Ohtani will not pitch for the entire 2024 season (and may not play in the field either), but he is currently slated as a primary SP in MLB The Show 24. Before this season, it would not really matter what SDS did because SDS did not setup default franchise modes to worry about injuries. Even something like Bryce Harper’s situation last year was not really a big consideration.

However, this year we will have an “injuries on” roster from SDS.

The question about what SDS would do with Ohtani started on the forums months ago, but now that we see him on the roster as a starting pitcher, it’s actually complicated the question even more for people who really care about “realism” and even how SDS will handle Ohtani on the “injury” roster. The catch here is you can’t switch Ohtani’s primary position from SP to RF — you can’t change any player’s primary position from pitcher to hitter or vice versa.

Beyond that, the Dodgers in general are going to have a weird roster crunch in The Show because they’re also eventually going to get Yamamoto in a roster update in the coming weeks, and The Show doesn’t have a great way to deal with things like a 6-man rotation, let alone a rotation that would also include a primary SP who can’t pitch right now.

So unless SDS changes Ohtani to a primary RF, what are the solutions? Well, the easiest solution probably will be just don’t worry about it. Let him pitch and DH and even play RF because the headache of realism isn’t worth the trouble. The other “easy” solution is SDS changes around his primary position and it mostly sorts itself out for year one. But it also would just create the same problem again in year two because then he’s not a starting pitcher.

So if those aren’t the solutions, then it’s time to get in the weeds. The community does not have the “perfect” solution if you do want to go down this road, but there’s a couple thing to try. The first comes from OS user bayou_city_bob.

What I did to Ohtani in Franchise to get him to not pitch in Franchise, CPU Team control:

Change position from SP to RP
Stamina >>> Down to 0
H/9 >>> Down to 52
Fielding >>> Down to 0
Arm Strength >>> Down to 0

Basically you need to get Ohtani’s Overall to 74-76 so he will occasionally be used as a DH & PH. If Ohtani ends up playing in the field this year, then you can up his fielding and change his secondary position from OF to the specific place he will play this season (I assume either LF or 1B).

Another way to do it if you just want to babysit specifically Ohtani comes from OS user Houston.

All you have to do is rotate him out of the rotation on his day to pitch, then sim those other days with him back in the rotation, then rotate him again.

In other words, you don’t touch his ratings, you just game the system by giving the Dodgers another SP on the days Ohtani would pitch and the knock-on effects are relatively limited.

One last way to do it goes back to MLB The Show 23, and it’s a little less consistent and eats up a bullpen spot, but you could keep Ohtani at DH and then you just put him in the long-relief spot. If he’s the starting DH, The Show will not put him in during games in a long-relief role.

Regardless of how you choose to handle it, we’ll need to see how SDS handles it (if at all) in the next couple weeks.