On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Dodgers fired Shohei Ohtani's longtime interpreter Ippei Mizuhara after he was alleged to have illegally gambled on sports with a California bookmaker who is the subject of a larger investigation. Major League Baseball's rules permit personnel to gamble on non-diamond sports (e.g. anything but baseball and softball) provided that sports gambling is legal in that jurisdiction -- which it is not within the state of California.
Mizuhara has since contradicted himself when it comes to Ohtani's financial involvement. He first claimed in an interview with ESPN that Ohtani agreed to pay off his gambling debts. Mizuhara later changed course, saying Ohtani had no knowledge of the situation and did not make transfers to the bookmaker's associate.
The bookmaker has claimed he never met or spoke with Ohtani, and there's no reason at this point in time to believe that Ohtani partook in any wrongdoing. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Berk Brettler law firm told CBS Sports the following: "In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft and we are turning the matter over to the authorities."
The Dodgers, for their part, were predictably mum on the situation both before and after Thursday's loss against the Padres in Seoul, South Korea. "There's nothing to say," top baseball operations executive Andrew Friedman told The Athletic. "Literally nothing to say."
Ohtani, for his part, was escorted out of the Dodgers clubhouse by a public relations staffer without offering comment to reporters.
Dodgers PR guarded Ohtani’s locker as he changed, then told reporters he would not be speaking. When reporters surrounded his locker, asking if he had a second anyway, he walked by and out of the clubhouse saying what the Japanese reporters translated as “have a good night.”
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) March 21, 2024
Manager Dave Roberts, meanwhile, refuted the idea that the Dodgers were impacted by the news before their 15-11 loss. "I don't think so. This team's been through a lot, as far as the core guys, over the years," he told reporters. "It didn't affect Yoshinobu [Yamamoto]. I believe that. We just got behind the 8-ball a little bit."
It's unclear if or when Ohtani and the Dodgers intend to more fully address the matter.
MLB is monitoring the situation and plans to gather facts, CBS Sports has learned. The league was not notified about the investigation before the news broke publicly.
