Roberts sees 500 home runs ahead for Ohtani after No. 300

Shohei Ohtani hit his 300th MLB home run on July 7, a leadoff drive against Colorado’s Michael Lorenzen at Dodger Stadium. The ball traveled 409 feet and left the bat at about 119 mph, per Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ postgame description. Ohtani is the first Japanese-born player to reach 300 major-league home runs and among the fastest ever to the mark — listed around the fifth-fastest by games played, behind a short list led by Aaron Judge.

Roberts, speaking after the milestone, said he still sees 500 home runs in Ohtani’s future. Ohtani had turned 32 days earlier. The 500-home-run club remains small; only a few dozen players have joined it. Getting there from 300 at age 32 is a long projection, not a forecast. It depends on health, how Ohtani’s two-way workload is managed, and whether his power stays near the 50-homer peaks he posted in recent Dodgers seasons.

The more immediate issue is his left knee. The Dodgers scratched Ohtani from a scheduled pitching start because of continued irritation, used him as a designated hitter through a weekend series, and planned a procedure to drain fluid from the knee. That plan also meant missing the All-Star Game in Philadelphia. Roberts has described the approach as proactive management tied to October readiness rather than a sudden emergency.

Ohtani entered the break still producing as both a hitter and pitcher, though his recent pitching outings coincided with the knee issue and a higher run total than his early-season standard. The club has not labeled the knee problem as season-ending. For now the sequence is clearer than the long-term outlook: 300 is in the books, 500 is a managerial hope with historical precedent, and the second half starts with rest and knee care before another look at the rotation.