Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani says he's innocent, but his situation creates bigger concern about sports betting
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani stands on the field during warmups before the team's spring training baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels Monday, March 25, 2024, in Los Angeles. Credit: AP/Jae C. Hong
Before delving into Shohei Ohtani’s carefully scripted Monday news conference, in a Dodger Stadium room limited to one TV camera and zero questions allowed, it’s important to understand something that gives his statement some credence.
To think of Ippei Mizuhara, along with many interpreters around the majors, as someone who merely translates one language into another for certain players is a definition that comes nowhere close to describing their actual roles. As Mizuhara alluded to himself, they can be nearly ever-present companions in some cases, and as a result, can grow to become trusted confidants to almost a spousal level (or beyond).
Did Mizuhara form a tight enough bond with Ohtani to secretly swipe a reported total of $4.5 million from the player’s bank accounts, in numerous installments stretched over years to cover Mizuhara’s gambling debts, without him even noticing?
For Ohtani’s remarks to be true, for him to have zero knowledge of such large sums missing and to proclaim a staggering level of ignorance the rest of us can’t comprehend, Mizuhara would need to have graduated to practically blood relative status. And be a master manipulator, of course, with uncommon powers of deception.
As difficult as that might be to believe, it does all exist within the realm of possibility.
But as for how that all went down, Ohtani didn’t include those details during Monday’s 12-minute media briefing (which was more like half that, given that his statements were translated by a new interpreter, Dodgers employee Will Ireton, who once served that role for Kenta Maeda).
What Ohtani did say Monday — in his first public comments about the illegal gambling investigation focused on Mizuhara’s payments to an illegal bookmaker — were not unexpected. He established plausible deniability on all fronts, and there certainly was no smoking gun to be had as Ohtani spoke on MLB Network’s live broadcast.
“I never bet on baseball or any other sports,” Ohtani said though Ireton. “Or never have asked somebody to do it on my behalf. And I have never went through a bookmaker to bet on sports.”
Not exactly a shocking revelation there for someone sitting in front of a microphone. But this whole case has had a credibility problem from the outset, with Mizuhara first telling ESPN that Ohtani knowingly paid off his gambling debts, then recanting the whole story, saying it was a complete fabrication. Apparently, Mizuhara was able to con the Dodgers, too, because his first version was the one related during a postgame meeting after last week’s season opener in Seoul.
The fact that Mizuhara flipped so quickly — he’s now facing allegations of stealing $4.5 million on top of doing business with an illegal gambling operation — is what made this whole scenario ripe for conspiracy theories.
Plus wasn’t it so much easier to believe that a super-rich friend like Ohtani, who just signed a $700 million deal with the Dodgers in December, merely bailed out Mizuhara rather than Ohtani being oblivious to his own bank account being drained?
But the latter story is the one Ohtani doubled down on Monday. By his timeline, he said he didn’t have any clue about Mizuhara’s scheme until after last Wednesday’s game in Seoul. By then, Mizuhara already had spun his false story to ESPN, the Dodgers and even, supposedly, Ohtani’s reps.
“All of this has been a complete lie,” Ohtani said.
Ironically, it seems that Mizuhara was able to use his profession as cover for the deception.With Ohtani saying he was unaware of what was happening, his desperate interpreter could shape the story to the English-speaking media before anyone was able to relay the details to him. That’s what Ohtani insisted Monday was the truth, with Mizuhara not telling him about the debts or payments to the bookie until the two went back to the hotel after that series opener against the Padres.
“At that moment, obviously, it was an absurd thing that was happening and I contacted my representatives at that point,” Ohtani said.
That’s what triggered the reversal from Mizuhara. But we can’t just forget the first version, and now everyone will have to wait for the investigations — from both the government agencies and MLB — to run their course.
Ohtani didn’t exonerate himself Monday by any stretch. And not taking questions left plenty of loose ends that aren’t just going to magically disappear when baseball starts playing for real (again) Thursday.
Another big takeaway from this whole Ohtani episode? It’s clear what the national pastime is now. With a gambling scandal now overshadowing one of the most sacred days on the sports calendar — involving baseball’s brightest star — it’s another reminder that the genie is out of the bottle.
Ohtani says he’s innocent of any gambling implications, but if the closest associate of a global superstar can allegedly steal $4.5 million to cover his massive debts, then anything is possible across a sports landscape that has been devoured by betting — both legal and not — like never before.
“I’m just beyond shocked,” Ohtani said. “It’s really hard to verbalize how I am feeling at this point.”
It’s understandable that Ohtani would be shocked. But for the rest of us? Not so much. Not anymore.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
