Is Shohei Ohtani the Victim? Or Is There More to the Story?

The 2024 Major League Baseball season kicked off earlier this week in Seoul, South Korea, but it hasn’t been the action on the field that has drawn the eyes of the world. The Los Angeles Dodgers organization fired Shohei Ohtani's personal interpreter on Wednesday for allegedly "taking" $4.5 million from the baseball legend to settle gambling debts. 

As more details have emerged, however, the question has been asked of whether Ohtani is the victim in this case or whether there is more to the story.

Originally a Case of Theft?

On Wednesday, before the Dodgers took the field to play the San Diego Padres in the second of a two-game series to start the 2024 MLB season, reports emerged that Ippei Mizuhara, a longtime friend and a personal interpreter hired by the team to translate for the Japanese superstar, had been fired from his role. 

This firing was allegedly because of a “massive theft” of money from Ohtani, once again allegedly by Mizuhara, to pay off gambling debts that the interpreter incurred. Ohtani would go on after this announcement to play in the game against the Padres, going 0-5 in the 15-11 loss to the Padres.

It was the second high-profile gambling debt story to circulate, after Bruno Mars was alleged to have owed MGM resorts $50 million, which they have since denied.

Almost immediately, baseball insiders began asking questions about the firing of the interpreter and Ohtani’s possible connection with it. 

No Wagering on Baseball

Major League Baseball still has stringent gambling rules in place for all teams, management, and personnel of the clubs, when it comes to wagering on baseball (betting on other activities or at casino sites is allowed). It still has a lifetime ban in place against “Shoeless” Joe Jackson that dates to the 1919 “Black Sox” Scandal of that year’s World Series, even though no evidence of Jackson’s involvement has ever been shown. 

Baseball also currently upholds a lifetime ban against Cincinnati Reds legend Pete Rose, who admitted to gambling on baseball and has been shunned by the sport since the early 1990s.

What piqued people’s interest was that there seemed to be no in-depth investigation from the Dodgers or Major League Baseball. 

It was readily accepted that Mizuhara had “taken” the money from Ohtani and that was enough to fire him from the team. As the Dodgers returned to the States to put the finishing touches on their Spring Training schedule, more details began to emerge.

What Did Ohtani Know?

Immediately following the announcement that the Dodgers had fired the interpreter, Mizuhara tried to establish that Ohtani was only helping him out of a tough spot. For years, Mizuhara racked up debts that would eventually reach $4.5 million. 

Although Mizuhara said that Ohtani “wasn’t happy about” the debts, he agreed to help by sending “several large payments” to cover the damage, including two wire transfers that totaled $1 million each.

The alleged plan was for Ohtani to pay the debts, but the discussion went through Mizuhara and Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo, to give Ohtani a veil of plausible deniability. The debts were allegedly made to Matthew Bowyer, who was supposedly running a bookmaking operation out of California. Mizuhara rang up these debts over three years, from 2021-2024.

After Mizuhara was fired, Ohtani claimed to not know anything about “paying off” the interpreter’s debts. He stated that the money that had left the account over the prior few months was taken “without his knowledge” and that there would be legal actions taken. To date, there have not been any charges filed in California or with the federal government.

Meanwhile, MLB is beginning to look a bit deeper into the situation. 

On Friday, the league announced, “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media. Earlier today, our Department of Investigations (DOI) began their formal process of investigating the matter.”

Potential Ramifications

If this is a case of money being stolen from Ohtani, who signed a massive ten-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers over the offseason, then Ohtani probably does not have any potential issues. It would be a case that, through the investigation by MLB, it would result in no punishments and even the full results of the MLB probe being released to the proper authorities.

If it is a case where Ohtani was just trying to help a longtime friend, once again, Ohtani probably does not have to worry about punishment. 

The people who might have to worry about punishment would include Mizuhara (who has already lost his job) and Balelo, who could be deemed by baseball as a fraudulent party who enacted a transaction that isn’t “in the best interest of baseball,” an actual clause that has been used to make decisions in the sport.

MLB Rule 21

Should there be evidence that Mizuhara was placing bets on Ohtani or, worse yet, that Ohtani was betting on these games himself (bets were placed on soccer, NBA basketball, the NFL, college football, everything other than MLB), then that runs afoul of Rule 21, which states that no professional baseball personnel can bet on the sport. 

But there is another clause in that rule that would be particularly painful should Ohtani be involved. The rule has a clause in it that makes it impermissible to bet with an illegal bookmaker, which is what Bowyer was, as sports betting in California is illegal. 

Mizuhara, by his own admission, has broken this rule and Balelo, through contacting and collaborating with Bowyer, has also broken it. But did Ohtani know Bowyer, or what he did, or were the bets placed with his knowledge? Those are the questions that arise.

It might take some time before we learn the final outcome because Major League Baseball is notoriously thorough in these situations (the John Dowd-led Rose investigation would take six months before Rose accepted a lifetime ban). 

It is, however, a sad occurrence for Ohtani, one of the biggest stars in the game and an international icon, who may be facing some serious repercussions in his own right.