Shohei Ohtani And The Interpreter: Baseball Scandal

If you are a baseball fan like me, you’ve probably watched Shohei Ohtani over the last 6 seasons and have been impressed. What this guy does on the field is nothing short of incredible. Let’s face it, there is simply no player like him. He is great for the sport as he brings a whole new market to the game with his international appeal. He is the “Golden Boy” of baseball, but right now he finds himself in a fight to keep that image untarnished. Last week I was interested by an article headline that said his interpreter allegedly stole $4.5M directly from Ohtani’s bank account. I was even more surprised to learn that that was nowhere near the full story.

The Controversy

This story is quite a complex one with many moving parts to it. I will do my best to lay out the story in as close to the timeline that events occurred as I understand them.

The Investigation

The story really begins with a federal investigation into an illegal bookmaker named Matthew Bowyer. He apparently has been on the feds radar for many years. ESPN reporter Tisha Thompson caught wind of this story and decided to look into this federal investigation. According to the article published by ESPN, in 2021 Bowyer’s path crossed with Ippei Mizuhara, the now former interpreter for Shohei Ohtani.

Mizuhara began betting on sports and was apparently pretty bad at it. He was so bad that he ran up a gambling debt of $4.5M. Mizuhara then allegedly transferred funds directly from Shohei Ohtani’s bank account to Bowyer to settle the debt. ESPN reviewed banking information that showed 2 separate wire transfers of $500,000 each in September and October of 2023. This raised some red flags and ESPN reached out to Ohtani’s camp to request an interview regarding the matter.

The Interview

According to Thompson, initially, “a spokesman for Ohtani told ESPN the slugger had transferred the funds to cover Mizuhara’s gambling debt.” The spokesman then offered up Mizuhara for a 90-minute interview with ESPN. During the interview, Mizuhara went to great length to explain what had happened. Mizuhara apparently portrayed Shohei Ohtani as a good friend who offered to pay off his debt as a loan. As ESPN began to put the final touches on the article, the spokesman for Ohtani reached out to ESPN to disavow everything that Mizuhara had initially told them. They went on further to say that Ohtani’s lawyers would soon be issuing a statement.

Ohtani’s Response

After the spokesman for Shohei Ohtani disavowed Mizuhara’s story, Ohtani’s legal team presented their own version of events. What they then told ESPN was that Mizuhara had stolen the money directly from Ohtani’s bank accounts and that they were accusing him of theft. They claimed that Ohtani knew nothing of the gambling debt and in no way agreed to pay off the debt for Mizuhara. This in turn led to the Dodgers firing Mizuhara, which has led to many more questions that have since gone unanswered.

Unanswered Questions

This story has many questions that need to be answered by Shohei Ohtani. Plain and simple. The first question is how did Mizuhara gain access to Ohtani’s bank account. Did he know passwords and logins on Ohtani’s computer? Did he sit in on bank meetings and steal account numbers that way? This will help shed light on where the relationship between Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara began to splinter.

The second issue is how did Ohtani not notice that $4.5M went missing from his account. If anyone moves any type of money from one account to another, they get a notification from their bank saying the money has been moved. I would be absolutely shocked if Ohtani’s bank failed to notify him that a sum of cash that large had left his account. ESPN has only seen records of that money being moved twice, but let’s break down the math of it. $500,000 would have to be moved 9 times in order to equal the sum of $4.5M. It would be stunning if he wasn’t notified about it. If he was never notified, then the guy definitely needs to find a new bank to work with.

Furthermore, I am assuming that Shohei Ohtani has an accountant. I won’t say all, but I will say most people that make the kind of money that he makes generally have an accountant to track their money. How did the accountant not notify him of multiple transactions worth of $500,000? How did they not even notice it on his tax returns when declaring how much he made last year? You would think that someone would have noticed and would have told Ohtani.

Mizuhara’s Past

Now that Ippei Mizuhara is at the center of a gambling scandal, people have begun digging into his past. It had been pretty well known in circles that he was Shohei Ohtani’s best friend up until this scandal broke. I think it’s safe to say that their friendship is likely over now. Sam Blum of The Athletic dove more into Mizuhara’s past in an article published on March 23, 2024.

Ippei Mizuhara has worked as Ohtani’s interpreter ever since Ohtani came to play baseball in MLB. During the time that Ohtani played for the Angels, the Angels had it listed that Mizuhara was a graduate of UC Riverside. In an article published by NBC Los Angeles, the university denies that Mizuhara had ever attended the school. There is a possibility that he attended the school under a different name, but I find that highly unlikely.

It was also listed that Mizuhara had worked as the interpreter for Hideki Okajima while he was with the Boston red Sox in 2010. The Red Sox have also come out to deny that Mizuhara ever worked for them in any way. These lies were bold claims by Mizuhara that somehow went unchecked by Shohei Ohtani and his camp. That is also a bit surprising.

I can somewhat understand overlooking Mizuhara’s claim that he graduated from UC Riverside. When I was a supervisor and had to hire an employee, I very rarely, if ever, checked to see that their claim about a college degree was accurate. I do find it quite bizarre that Ohtani’s camp never checked in with the Boston Red Sox about his employment there. Wouldn’t one want to check in with a former employer to find out about the character of the person they are about to hire? Especially a person who will spend most of the time with their client? I don’t understand how that got missed, which will be something Ohtani will have to explain.

The Press Conference

Yesterday afternoon, Shohei Ohtani held a press conference to lay out his side of the story to the media. At the end of the press conference, through a new interpreter, Ohtani said that he was grateful that he had this chance to talk with the media. I would hardly call it talking with the media as he declined to take any questions. Ohtani laid out his timeline of learning what Mizuhara had done, but that in itself raises some more questions.

During the press conference, Ohtani claimed that he knew nothing about the missing money until after Mizuhara addressed the Dodgers in a team meeting after the team’s first game of the season in Seoul, South Korea. As I mentioned earlier, I find this rather difficult to believe. I feel that he would have been made aware of the wire transfers in one way or another through either bank notifications or someone in his circle telling him about it.

There is also an issue on the timeline of when Ohtani found out. It had been reported that Ohtani found out about Mizuhara before the game, but that could just be misreporting as many things in this situation are still unclear. But, if Ohtani had found out before the game, it makes the interactions in the dugout between Ohtani and Mizuhara during the game seem strange. There didn’t appear to be anything wrong between the two as they were seen smiling and laughing together.

Shohei Ohtani also claimed that he was unaware of the initial interview that Mizuhara gave to ESPN. I find this extremely difficult to believe. Ohtani’s team made Mizuhara available to ESPN for 90 minutes. Would Shohei not ask questions about that? Wouldn’t his spokesman or someone else on his team give him a heads up? That claim seems very fishy and out of place to me.

My Take

Ever since I first heard the initial story from ESPN about how Mizuhara was fired, there has been things that have seemed odd and needed answering. I have seen people on social media and heard people on talk shows give their opinions on the matter, and I think some are more realistic than others. My opinion here is just that, my opinion. I know nothing of the investigation first hand or of Shohei Ohtani himself.

One opinion out there is that Ohtani was the one illegally gambling on sports and that he got busted for it. He is now using Mizuhara as the fall guy to try to cover his tracks. I find this idea to be unlikely. Could Shohei Ohtani have a gambling problem? Nobody in the media really knows Ohtani anyway. Ohtani surprised everyone when he announced earlier this month on social media that he had gotten married. So sure, Ohtani could have a gambling problem, but I honestly highly doubt it.

Another opinion out there is that Mizuhara’s initial claim was actually the truth. Ohtani was a good guy who offered to pay off his buddy’s gambling debt as a loan. I would like to think that this claim is probably the most likely version of the story, However, it’s hard to trust Mizuhara as he has left a web of lies that he is now tangled in. This could also bring legal trouble to Ohtani if true. If true this could make Ohtani liable to being an accomplice in illegal betting, which brings consequences in the baseball world. It also brings consequences as gambling is illegal in California.

One other storyline that I haven’t really heard is that maybe Ohtani was duped into loaning the money by Mizuhara. Perhaps Mizuhara told Ohtani that he needed the money for some reason, but then used it to pay off the gambling debt. I think this is a solid possibility which is why Ohtani could say that he didn’t know it was for gambling until much later. Without actually being there it’s very difficult to say what really happened though.

This story is definitely a story casting a shadow on MLB as the season begins. I don’t think it’s a story that we will have answers to any time soon. MLB has now launched their own investigation into the matter. It will be interesting to see how Shohei Ohtani holds up under all the pressure that he will be under this season as this story looms over him. I believe it will be months, if not years, until we know the true story. I do believe that this is all just the tip of the iceberg with this story. Who knows, maybe time will prove me wrong.

Want to read more about my thoughts on the upcoming baseball season? Check out my 2024 division by division breakdowns and predictions today!