One of the more unexpected storylines in the early portion of the 2026 Major League Baseball season has been the complaints from opposing managers about Los Angeles Dodgers superstar .Â
Ohtani, you might remember, started his career with the in 2018. While with the Angels, he was a two-way player who both pitched and hit. The league, attempting to ensure that the additional value of a two-way player, particularly the most marketable and talented two-way player, would be properly recognized, enacted a rule ensuring that any two-way player would be able to stay in the game as a designated hitter after exiting as a pitcher.Â
Essentially, treating that player as two separate entities. To use Ohtani as an example, Ohtani the hitter, and Ohtani the pitcher. That rule was put in place in 2019 to create a template for him or any other two-way players that emerge.Â
Then, in 2022, when , and enacted roster restrictions, 13 pitchers and 13 hitters, in order to maintain the importance of starting pitching, they set up another rule that meant designated two-way players who met certain criteria would not count against the maximum number of pitchers allowed on a roster. This, again, was enacted when Ohtani was with the Angels.Â
For some reason, manager Craig Counsell decided to criticize these years-old rules in April 2026. And in a new interview, one of the Dodgers top executives addressed Counsells comments and didnt seem too pleased with them.
In a new interview with AM 570, the Dodgers home radio station in LA, the teams president of Baseball Operations was asked about Counsells comments by broadcaster David Vassegh. Specifically, why he thought Counsell brought it up now, years into this process. And in response, he brought up that the rule was discussed with input from the teams themselves, making the criticism even more bizarre.
“I dont know,” Friedman said. “It felt very random and strange to me that he felt the need to bring it up. And when Shohei was on the Angels and MLB was considering this, they reached out to a bunch of teams, us included. And I said, look, from a competitive standpoint as the Dodgers, I dont love it, but wearing my industry hat and whats best for Major League Baseball, its to do everything we can for Shohei Ohtani to be in and stay in games.”
“So thats the part of him being able to stay in the game when he pitches. When he comes off the mound, the old rule would have been, then the hitter has to come out as well. But I was able to look at what is best for the industry and Shohei playing, and playing more often and staying in games is what is best for this game and best for the fans and everything else.”
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If the teams were contacted about this rule, and the league implemented it after considering their feedback, why the complaining now? Thats unclear, but one of the big problems seems to be a complete misunderstanding of what the rule actually is and the . Jim Bowden, for example, a former general manager himself and current baseball commentator, apparently got it completely wrong.
“So that was when he was with the Angels, and as far as the 13 pitcher rule, again, it is more that we have 13 pitchersâ¦I had to clarify this with Jim Bowden, who said that we have nine relieversâ¦We dont have nine relievers, we have eight relievers just like everyone else, we have five starters, like everyone else,” Friedman explained. “Its just when Shohei is able and the rest makes sense, Shohei pitches also. It is not that we are carrying an extra reliever relative to others.
“So its certainly an advantage but it should be an advantage. What Shohei does and what he is capable of is so unique, it should be rewarded, it should be celebrated. And everyone knew the Shohei rules and had an equal opportunit
