Los Angeles Angels' Shohei Ohtani to miss rest of season after knee surgery

Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani is scheduled to undergo season-ending surgery to address a knee injury.

The team announced Thursday that Ohtani will have surgery to address bipartite patella in his left knee, a rare congenital condition that gave him discomfort during recent bullpen sessions.

The procedure, which will be performed Friday in Los Angeles, comes with an expected recovery time of eight to 12 weeks, according to the team.

Angels general manager Billy Eppler told reporters the team expects Ohtani to be ready to throw at the beginning of spring training.

"We're going to get the surgery because it started to cause Shohei some apprehension as he was increasing the intensity of his mound progression," Eppler said. "He's been going through those progressions and he's been at 83, 85, 86 mph, and as he was going up in intensity, it was aggravating him a little bit.

"So we made the decision to kind of play it safe and not continue the mound sessions and get this condition addressed now."

Ohtani, who underwent Tommy John surgery after last season, had been off the mound since late June. The 25-year-old slugger spent this season primarily as the Angels' designated hitter, finishing with a .286 batting average, 18 home runs and 62 RBIs in 106 games.