Dodgers fire back at Cubs manager Craig Counsell over criticism of 'bizarre' Shohei Ohtani rule

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 Shohei Ohtani. 

Ohtani, you might remember, started his career with the Los Angeles Angels 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. 

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. 

Then, in 2022, when MLB moved to 26 players, 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. 

For some reason, Chicago Cubs 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 Counsell’s comments and didn’t seem too pleased with them.

In a new interview with AM 570, the Dodgers’ home radio station in LA, the team’s president of Baseball Operations was asked about Counsell’s 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 don’t 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 don’t love it, but wearing my industry hat and what’s best for Major League Baseball, it’s to do everything we can for Shohei Ohtani to be in and stay in games.’"

"So that’s 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? That’s unclear, but one of the big problems seems to be a complete misunderstanding of what the rule actually is and the advantage the Dodgers have. 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 pitchers…I had to clarify this with Jim Bowden, who said that we have nine relievers…We don’t have nine relievers, we have eight relievers just like everyone else, we have five starters, like everyone else," Friedman explained. "It’s 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 it’s 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 opportunity to sign him two years ago. So I’m not sure where the Cubs were in that process, or what Counsell’s thoughts were on it then, but that seems like more of the relevant time to voice it than now."

This is what made Counsell’s comments, and the ensuing fan outrage, so odd. Ohtani’s unique value is that he can hit and pitch, at a high level. That advantage would exist regardless of roster limits or restrictions. They don’t get to carry an "extra" reliever because of Ohtani. They get a benefit when he makes his once-a-week scheduled start. And again, this advantage would exist regardless, because no other team has a starter who can have a 50/50 season and put up a 0.38 ERA in the first month of the year. Which is why he got $700 million and fully deserved it. The Cubs have plenty of money; they could have signed him and taken advantage of that rule. Or find a two-way player of their own to develop. They didn’t, and now they’re mad about it, years after the rule was enacted and benefited the Angels. Weird.