Baseball's quiet superstar stays quiet
Shohei Ohtani is finally expected to say something about the gambling scandal that brought down his friend and interpreter. Here's betting he doesn't say much
The most charitable interpretation of the Shohei Ohtani story so far is that he was duped.
That he was, essentially, clueless about the fact that millions of dollars allegedly moved from an account bearing his name to an illegal bookmaker. He was so unaware of the extent to which his close friend and interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, had traded on his wealth and celebrity while racking up massive debts that he was even in the clubhouse when Mizuhara apologized to the Los Angeles Dodgers and explained that he had a gambling addiction — and Ohtani still didn’t realize what was being said about him because the apology was delivered in English.
Again, this is the charitable interpretation: that Ohtani was a complete mark. A sucker of the highest order.
It might even be true. Ohtani is one of the most remarkable athletes ever. He pitches and hits at a Hall of Fame level. Perhaps being two elite ballplayers in a singular body does not leave any space left over for awareness of personal finance. Or, like, basic skepticism. This is, after all, the same guy who agreed to defer 97% of his annual salary, evidently unaware of the concept of compound interest.
But even allowing for all that, it still leaves the glaring problem of Ohtani having his name on, allegedly, payments to a bookie totalling at least US$4.5-million. If these transactions were related to performance-enhancing drugs, Major League Baseball would be unlikely to simply accept claims that they were made on behalf of a friend, or were the result of some kind of theft or scam. Circumstantial evidence is still given a lot of weight.
And yet, it sure seems like MLB, and the Dodgers, are going to do everything they can to accept the version of events in which Ohtani was an utter rube. Major League Baseball waited until Friday afternoon, more than two days after the initial stories broke, to announce that, yes, it would be looking into this unfortunate business. Ohtani himself hasn’t said boo since, although he is expected to say something on Monday in Los Angeles. The Dodgers, meanwhile, are remarkably chill about all this.
According to a report Sunday in The Athletic, the Japanese superstar has carried on like nothing has happened, even though Mizuhara, omnipresent at his side since he came to MLB in 2018, has been fired and is now under criminal investigation:
As of Sunday, Ohtani hadn’t addressed the situation with teammates. Roberts said there are no plans for Ohtani to do so — although before his dismissal Mizuhara addressed the club and divulged his gambling problem.
While the manager has spoken with his new star since the news broke, they haven’t discussed what happened.
That last part is amazing. Dave Roberts, the Dodgers manager, hasn’t “discussed what happened” with Ohtani? The guy who is on the books for US$700-million and who might have had a secret gambling addiction that could theoretically lead to a lengthy suspension? Not even a l’il chat?
Of course, the Dodgers and MLB will want to believe that Mizuhara was entirely at fault, that Ohtani was blissfully unaware of his friend’s debts and that his money was being used to settle them. That version would normally be a disaster on its own, with a team employee who sits in the dugout next to a global superstar deeply involved with an illegal bookmaking operation, but it beats the alternative.
Conveniently for MLB, it has experience in taking messy problems and conducting investigations that result in surprisingly tidy solutions. When the Houston Astros in 2019 were found to have conducted a widespread sign-stealing operation in previous seasons, blame ultimately landed on coaches and executives, who were fired, and no players were punished retroactively or otherwise. The team’s 2017 World Series title was left unchallenged.
A couple of seasons ago, pitchers and hitters were both complaining in the early months that the ball was surprisingly dead, an observation that happened to be backed up with data. It wasn’t the first time that MLB had been accused of altering the properties of its equipment without telling anyone, but the league insisted that there was nothing to see here. Move along, folks.
Would anyone be shocked if commissioner Rob Manfred ultimately rules in a similar manner in the Ohtani case? (I would not be shocked.)
The point has been made all over the place in recent days that because MLB, like all North American sports, has fully embraced legalized sports betting over the past couple years, Manfred has extra motivation to find that Ohtani doesn’t gamble, doesn’t ever think about gambling, and wouldn’t know how to place a bet in the extremely unlikely event he decided to try it. This conclusion would avoid the awkward scenario in which sports-betting’s sudden and pervasive influence on baseball ending up ensnaring one of its biggest stars.
The funny thing is, California is one of the few states where sports-betting is not yet legal. The bookmaking operation where Mizuhara is said to have run up his debts is a throwback to the olden days, when the only people who would take your action were proper criminals. ESPN reports that the interpreter had used a legal sportsbook before and so didn’t realize that the operation where he eventually lost millions was illegal, but like most of what he has said that stretches belief. Maybe the first clue that everything wasn’t above board was when someone came to his house and threatened to break his knuckles.
Which is to say, it was always inevitable that the gambling explosion in North America would bring some kind of scandal involving a famous athlete. It’s just a surprise that in the end, the particulars are so old-fashioned.
And so, we wait to see what Ohtani, finally, has to say about it. The smart money is on him explaining that he unfortunately cannot say much while the investigation is ongoing.