A Brief Shohei Ohtani Explainer for People Who Don't Know Who Shohei Ohtani Is

By Dustin Rowles | News | March 25, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | News | March 25, 2024 |

Shohei Ohtani is a Major League Baseball player. He’s one of the best to ever play the game. He’s an exceptionally rare two-way player — an extraordinarily good pitcher and hitter. He’s been the most popular player in the game for the last several years despite playing for the woeful Los Angeles Angels since 2017. He also won back-to-back unanimous MVPs, the first player to ever do so. In the offseason, Ohtani signed a 10-year $700 million contract with perennial favorites, the Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s the largest contract in professional sports history.

Ohtani’s importance to baseball cannot be overstated. Until last week, he was not only the best player in the game, he had never been the subject of controversy, either. But now, his future in the game is in doubt.

The Controversy

Last week, Ohtani’s name surfaced in relation to an investigation against Mathew Bowyer, a bookie in California where sports gambling is illegal. The only thing for certain is that around $4.5 million of Ohtani’s money ended up in Bowyer’s account.

The initial story was that Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and confidant, Ippei Mizuhara, had accrued a large gambling debt, and Ohtani paid it off for him. Soon thereafter, however, the story changed: Ohtani’s representatives claimed that he was the “victim of a massive theft.” The Dodgers fired Mizuhara. Major League Baseball has since opened an investigation, and the IRS is investigating both Mizuhara and the bookie, Mathew Bowyer.

The Scenarios

There are three possibilities. First, it’s just as Ohtani’s representatives have claimed: Mizuhara stole $4.5 million from Ohtani and wired it to his bookie to pay off gambling debts. In this situation, Othani is cleared, and Mizuhara likely goes to jail.

The second possibility is what Mizuhara initially claimed: He accrued a massive gambling debt, and his longtime friend, confidant, and employer wired the money to the bookie to pay off Mizuhara’s debt. This probably gets Ohtani in trouble because it’s illegal to wire money to a bookie in California because sports gambling itself is illegal. This likely merits a suspension, but it doesn’t cost Ohtani his career.

The biggest question raised by the first two possibilities is why would the bookie, Bowyer, extend $4.5 million in credit to Mizuhara, someone he knows doesn’t earn enough money to pay back those debts. It’s either because he knew Ohtani would pay off his interpreter’s debt for him, or … it’s a third possibility: Ohtani made the bets himself using his interpreter as a go-between. This possibility is the most grave: If Ohtani made bets on baseball, he’s done. He gets the Pete Rose treatment. Lifetime ban.

Nobody wants that, least of all Major League Baseball, which doesn’t want to lose its most popular player. If Ohtani placed the bets, and those bets weren’t on baseball, he’s still in trouble because — while it’s not against the rules of MLB to bet on other sports, it is illegal to gamble on sports in the state of California. In that situation, Othani probably elicits a suspension or a hefty fine, but not a lifetime ban.

The good news is that Mizuhara claims, at least, that he never bet on baseball. But Mizuhara is not someone who can necessarily be trusted, as major discrepancies in Mizuhara’s past have begun to surface. For instance, he claimed he graduated from the University of California-Riverside, but there is no record that he attended. His claims that he worked as an interpreter for former pitcher Hideki Okajima and the Boston Red Sox have also been disputed by Hideki Okajima and the Red Sox.

In other words, the first scenario is still possible: An interpreter with a sketchy past who likely has access to his closest friend’s bank accounts stole money from Ohtani. Ohtani, being as rich as he is, may not have noticed. When confronted about it, Mizuhara — acting as Ohtani’s interpreter — may have initially lied and told reporters that Ohtani had paid gambling debts on Mizuhara’s behalf. The bookie also said, through his attorney, that he never had any contact with Ohtani. The evidence, so far, suggests it may have been a massive theft. Common sense, however, perhaps suggests otherwise.

Ohtani will hold a press conference this afternoon — using his new interpreter Will Ireton — to address the situation for the first time since his interpreter was fired.

Background: Los Angeles Times, Deadline ESPN