MLB opened its season Wednesday morning, with its biggest superstar, Shohei Ohtani, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to a win. Then came the scandal.
Specifically, Ohtani’s longtime interpreter and friend, Ippei Mizuhara, was fired by the Dodgers after being reported to have stolen millions of dollars from the two-way phenom to cover his gambling debts. The story stunned the baseball world by dropping out of nowhere Wednesday and only got more confusing as details emerged.
A lengthy ESPN report laid out what was clearly a bizarre situation behind the scenes, all centered on the claim that Ohtani had agreed to cover Mizuhara’s debts. An Ohtani spokesman reportedly claimed that to be the case to ESPN, only to reverse course one day later and get the slugger’s legal team involved.
It should be noted that everyone involved in the story has said Ohtani does not gamble, including Mizuhara and the alleged illegal bookmaker involved in the story. MLB players are allowed to gamble on sports that are not baseball, but not through illegal means. ESPN cited sources in the gambling operation that claimed Bowyer dealt directly with Mizuhara for bets on soccer and other non-baseball sports.
In the interest of clarity, here’s the whole story chronologically, as it was laid out in the ESPN report, plus some background information.