What’s Going On?
In a $4.5 million illegal sports betting scandal, someone is lying and it could be MLB’s golden child Shohei Ohtani.
In the first week of the new MLB season, Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers’ superstar Shohei Ohtani, was fired from the team, and two conflicting stories have been provided about the situation. In one, Ohtani generously paid off his friend’s gambling debts. In the other, Mizuhara stole $4.5 million from Ohtani, and Ohtani is an innocent victim.
The former is the story that Mizuhara and a spokesperson for Ohtani told ESPN on Tuesday, March 19. They then retracted that story on Wednesday and replaced it with the latter.
The difference in these stories is incredibly significant, because the original story could incriminate Ohtani, as it involves him dealing with an illegal bookmaker. And while there’s an important difference in these stories as they pertain to Ohtani, they make a huge difference for Mizuhara. In one story, he’s in debt and a friend bails him out. In the other, he steals $4.5 million.
So… what actually happened? We don’t really know yet, but there is plenty of speculation.
Theory #1: The Original Story Is True
A spokesperson for Ohtani goes to the press and says that Ohtani knowingly paid off Mizuhara’s debts, a story that Mizuhara corroborates in his interview with ESPN. Then, 24 hours later, they change things up. What’s up with that?
Some people think that both parties were originally telling the truth, but realized that Ohtani could get in big trouble for this, so they backtracked and twisted the story to make it seem like Ohtani had no idea that any of this was happening, protecting him from punishment with MLB.
One of the strangest parts of this whole situation is the nearly immediate 180° turnaround in the story, and this theory could totally explain that. Of course Ohtani would pay off Ippei’s debts– they’re best friends. But as soon as someone thought “Hey, even though he wasn’t betting himself, MLB could still punish him for his association with an illegal bookmaker.” They decided that they couldn’t risk that and that Mizuhara was going to have to take a much bigger fall.
Theory #2: The Second Story Is True
Right after Ohtani’s people retracted the first story, they replaced it with the the story of “massive theft.” One of the biggest questions surrounding this story is “why in the world would Mizuhara have such open access to Ohtani’s bank accounts?” On Fansided’s Starkville podcast, Ohtani’s former manager Joe Maddon dismissed this issue, but raised a separate one.
It was ‘easily’ conceivable to Maddon “that Shohei would rely on Ippei to handle, like, daily bill paying… So that, to me, is not a reach by any means. The part that I don’t quite understand is the fact that, especially when you talk about those ($4.5 million) numbers, if they are accurate, that the agency would not have known about that.”
So as Maddon said, the bigger question now becomes, “how did no one realize what was going on?” With millions of dollars leaving Ohtani’s account inexplicably, no one batted an eye?
Ohtani met with the media last week, and vehemently defended his position, stating that “Ippei has been stealing from my account, and has told lies” (through interim interpreter Will Ireton).
Of course, this in no way confirms anything, but this is the only stance that Ohtani himself has openly taken. Everything else has been said by his representatives.
There are also some who believe that, because Mizuhara was still interpreting for Ohtani and acting as a middleman between him and his representatives while all of this was going down, he could have been manipulating the first story in his favor as one of the primary communicators.
Theory #3: Ippei Is Just Ohtani’s “Fall Guy”
At least one of the stories has to be a lie, but maybe both of them are. What’s been confirmed is this: Approximately $4.5 million left Ohtani’s bank account and was paid to an illegal bookmaker for sports bets. In both primary stories, Mizuhara has been labeled the gambler, but it’s perfectly plausible that Ohtani himself was the bettor.
In this third theory, Ohtani is the one with the massive gambling problem, but this would get him in much more trouble than only being adjacent to the betting situation, so his camp has decided that Mizuhara is going to have to take the fall, and they’ve completely built the story around Mizuhara.
Again, Ohtani denied all of this in his press conference last week, but the speculation still lingers. This is the only of the three theories that hasn’t been stated by any officials for Ohtani, Mizuharam, MLB, or the Dodgers, but it’s one that is being circulated (and joked about) on baseball social media.
What’s Next?
If the first story is true, that Ohtani helped out Mizuhara with his debts, the next move is up to MLB’s Commissioner, Rob Manfred.
MLB Rule 21 states: “Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee who places bets with illegal book makers, or agents for illegal book makers, shall be subject to such penalty as the Commissioner deems appropriate in light of the facts and circumstances of the conduct.”
If the second story is true, that Ohtani was stolen from, then he should be off the hook. Massive punishment will be in order for Mizuhara, but Ohtani would be clean and free to continue playing with no penalty.
And if the third theory is true, that Ohtani was the real gambler, it could mean a lot of things. If he ever bet on baseball (which both him and Mizuhara vehemently deny), he would receive a permanent ban from baseball. If it’s just other sports, then his punishment would fall back under Rule 21, but could potentially be more severe due to more direct involvement.
In any case, this is the story to follow at the start of the new MLB season.