The fallout from yesterday’s bombshell report about Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter (maybe?) stealing massive sums from Ohtani to pay off a gambling debt really has yet to even start, you know, falling. This is just not going to be one of those things that goes away quietly because the story is too wild, the player too big, and the conflicting information too confusing.
You can see more of the reporting as to the known facts and timeline here at ESPN, here in The Athletic, here at MLB.com, and here at the LA Times, whose original report blew the cover off this whole thing. As far as the publicly-available reporting indicates, this is my best understanding of the approximate timeline of relevant events, which underscores why there are still so many questions:
- Federal investigators were looking into a bookie in Southern California, where sports betting is still illegal, when they reportedly discovered wire transfers to the bookie for huge amounts that were in Shohei Ohtani’s name, and came from Ohtani’s bank account. This happened some time before Tuesday, and the transfers date to at least as far back as September 2023.
- As of Tuesday, I take it that furious work was going on behind the scenes at the LA Times and ESPN to report on this story. All while the Dodgers were in Korea, getting ready to kick off the MLB season the next day.
- In relation to the media investigation, it seems a representative for Ohtani told ESPN on Tuesday that the funds transfers were made by Ohtani (or otherwise approved of by Ohtani) to cover the gambling debt of his friend and interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara.
- That same representative made Mizuhara available to talk to ESPN for 90 minutes on Tuesday night. In that interview, Mizuhara said, “Obviously, he [Ohtani] wasn’t happy about it and said he would help me out to make sure I never do this again. He decided to pay it off for me. I want everyone to know Shohei had zero involvement in betting. I want people to know I did not know this was illegal. I learned my lesson the hard way. I will never do sports betting ever again.”
- Other reports also indicate via sources that Ohtani did not bet, and Mizuhara did not bet on baseball. The debt was at least $4.5 million.
- On Wednesday – seemingly just before(?) the Dodgers were playing that first game – the same Ohtani representative who’d previously told ESPN that Ohtani was covering the debt for Mizuhara, and who’d made Mizuhara available for the interview, disavowed Mizuhara’s account, and instead pointed to a statement from Ohtani’s attorneys that the player had actually been the victim of “massive theft.” Mizuhara was not specified in that statement, though he later told ESPN that, actually, Ohtani had no knowledge of his gambling debts and had not sent money to the bookie on his behalf. (That’d be the preferable version of events from Ohtani’s perspective, because then he would have no possible exposure to any liability for having sent money to an illegal betting operation, even if done so with good intentions.)
- Before the reports came out, and after that season-opening win for the Dodgers – in which you could see Ohtani and Mizuhara talking and joking around in the dugout in the 9th inning – apparently Mizuhara was permitted to address the entire team, knowing that stories would soon come out. Dodgers owner Mark Walter and CEO Stan Kasten were there, according to The Athletic, and other sources there indicated the meeting was “weird” and “strange.” Moreover, The Athletic’s account indicated that Mizuhara’s story in the meeting was that of his original ESPN interview (i.e., that he had a gambling problem, and Ohtani offered to cover his debt).
- The timing on those last two bullets is especially confusing because of the time difference between Korea and the United States. It’s not entirely clear to me which came first, Mizuhara’s address to the team or Ohtani’s attorney’s disavowing that version of events. I believe it would’ve been the team address (which, if right after the game, would’ve been Wednesday morning in the States, long before the LA Times published the statement from Ohtani’s attorneys), but I can’t be sure.
- Why does that timing matter? Well, if Mizuhara was saying in a team meeting – with Ohtani present – that he had a gambling problem, his friend had covered his debts for him, etc., and the attorney statement of a theft came out AFTER that meeting, then it would be pretty hard to believe that Ohtani had no knowledge of the gambling debts, which is how Mizuhara’s story changed after the attorney statement came out. Instead, if that timeline is correct, it would seem more plausible that Ohtani did have knowledge, did cover the debts, and then only later did lawyers get involved and try to steer Ohtani clear of ever having had any involvement. I could be wrong about that, though, especially because the time zones confound things, AND the fact that Mizuhara was literally Ohtani’s translator, so who is to say exactly what Ohtani heard and did not hear?
In any case, after the team address (with the original, friend-did-me-a-solid version of events), and after the attorney statement (with the theft allegation), the reports started dropping. First at the LA Times, then at ESPN, then at The Athletic. The Dodgers announced that Mizuhara had been fired, and declined any other comment. That was all Wednesday late-afternoon.
We have been swimming in confusion and uncertainty ever since, particularly because of the seemingly two different stories that were told on Tuesday and Wednesday.
As you’d expect, Ohtani wasn’t going to make himself available to answer questions after the second game in Korea (which wrapped early this Thursday morning here in the States), and the Dodgers sure weren’t going to force him either:
So where do things stand now? Well, we haven’t heard from MLB or Ohtani, directly. There is now a week before the Dodgers play again, so I’m not sure what happens in that time.
The reporting suggests Ohtani is not a direct part of the federal investigation, and had no contact or relationship whatsoever with the bookie under investigation. As for MLB, there is no indication that they are officially investigating Ohtani either.
And as we sit here today, it SEEMS LIKE the “official” story – eventually – from the involved parties is that Ippei Mizuhara bet on non-baseball sports with an (allegedly) illegal bookmaking operation, and wound up with at least a $4.5 million debt in the process. Mizuhara somehow took care of that debt on his own with no knowledge from Ohtani, and somehow massive amounts of money were transferred from Ohtani’s bank accounts to an (allegedly) illegal bookmaking operation. The end. No one ask any follow-up questions.
Does that version of events pass the smell test? It does not for me, at least not without substantially more clarifying information.
We don’t know why the story seemingly changed, let alone why it seemingly changed so dramatically. We don’t know whether Ohtani ever actually knew anything. We don’t know how an interpreter was effectively getting millions of dollars of credit from a bookie. We don’t know how an interpreter was allegedly getting access to a player’s financial accounts. We don’t know if there will be legal action. We don’t know if MLB will ever investigate further. We don’t know how the Dodgers are going to try to squash this thing from a communications perspective. Oh, and I guess we don’t know what Ohtani will do in terms of a new interpreter, but that seems likely to be the least impactful part of this story.
UPDATE: Ohtani’s camp seems to have an explanation the conflicting, changing stories.