The Los Angeles Dodgers will be without Shohei Ohtani for at least the next two weeks as manager Dave Roberts confirmed Wednesday night they'll be placing him on the injured list.Ohtani's IL stint will be backdated to Tuesday, Sept. 8. Since he's a two-way player, he must go on the 15-day IL, rather than the 10-day IL reserved for position players.Thus, the earliest potential return date for Ohtani is Wednesday, Sept. 23. Roberts said the team is targeting that day for his activation.“I do think that if the playoffs were tomorrow, he’d be in the lineup,” Roberts said to reporters Wednesday night. “And so now knowing that there’s got to be some at-bats taken before the playoffs, and he understands that. So I’m pretty confident that he’ll be ready to go on that 15th day.”Shohei Ohtani is going on the injured list for the first time as a Dodger🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨Read below for everything you need to know about his injury, when he can return and his replacement (Josue De Paula)⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/6vxqvr0fEP— Dodgers On SI (@DodgersOnSI) September 10, 2026Ohtani missed four consecutive games beginning last Thursday due to lingering injuries to his knee, biceps and neck. He returned on Monday, and went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts before sitting out Tuesday's game and reporting a setback on Tuesday night. Ohtani was out of the lineup on Wednesday. After the game, the Dodgers made the decision to ultimately place him on the IL."I think that now you’re talking about two weeks, 14 days. I feel that that’s substantial," Roberts said. "He’ll be in a much better place than he was today. Is it going to be 100%? Probably not. But I do think that with this time that we’re taking now, he’ll be in an adequate spot to finish the season.”Roberts said Ohtani will likely be "shut down for two, three days, just to kind of calm it down." Then, the team will begin his ramp up to get ready to return on Sept. 23 — and play postseason baseball a week later.The Dodgers are currently 3.5 games up on the Atlanta Braves for the No. 2 seed in the National League playoff race. A top-two seed earns the Dodgers a first-round bye and would allow them to avoid the wild-card round.Those extra days off could prove critical for Ohtani.If the Dodgers drop to the No. 3 seed and are forced to play in the wild-card round, they'd begin the postseason on Sept. 29. If they earn a top-two seed and get to skip the wild-card series, they'd open the postseason in the NL Division Series on Oct. 3.The Dodgers are placing Shohei Ohtani on the injured list. He must go on the 15-day IL as a two-way player.The earliest he can return is Sept. 23. The wild-card round starts Sept. 29. The NLDS would start Oct. 3.Josue De Paula will likely replace Ohtani as the everyday DH. pic.twitter.com/KBBHzj1vdJ— Noah Camras (@noahcamras) September 10, 2026Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on X/Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow