Opening day is just around the corner! We are headed to the final stretches of spring training and the players will soon make their way to their destined stadium for opening day starting on March 28th! Sure, the Dodgers and Padres had two matches overseas but the real show is starting next week for the rest of the 28 teams in baseball. The last thing that any team wants is for one of the expected key pieces to their potential winning club to start off the season missing a significant amount of time due to injuries or a massive scandal. While there have plenty of injuries happening, especially involving pitchers, before the opening day crawl rolls, I don’t think there is a bigger potential of a superstar missing the start of the year and then some than with easily the biggest superstar in baseball, Shohei Ohani!
In case no one is aware, Major League Baseball is currently undergoing an investigation on Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. This investigation involves an uncovering of $4.5 million in wire payments that came directly from Ohtani’s bank account to a Southern California bookmarking operation. On March 19th, Mizuhara told ESPN in a 90-minute interview that he had asked Ohtani to repay the debts and Ohtani himself gave the green light to transferred them to the bookie. Mizuhara also told that story to the Dodgers clubhouse after their game against the Padres that day. It certainly seems bizarre for having to pay all that debt at once in the hopes it would avoid further suspicious thoughts but hey, at least that situation is resolved, right? Insert plot twist!
As it turns out, none of that might have been the case whatsoever and Ohtani himself could be a victim of massive theft. According to ESPN, as they prepared to air the interview the very next morning, Ohtani’s law firm made a statement reading, “We discovered the Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft, and we are turning the matter over to the authorities.” That basically gives the impression that amount of money was not meant to come out of Ohtani’s bank account, at least according to his law firm, and this had to do with Mizuhara trying to steal a small piece of that 700 million dollar pie from Ohtani for his own needs.
The Dodgers fired Mizuhara almost immediately and has replaced him with Will Ireton as Ohtani’s newest interpreter. Another person that has potential link to this scandal is Mathew Bowyer, who sources believed placed bets with Mizuhara using Ohtani’s money. Bets that were made with an allegedly illegal bookmaker.
However, according to Bowyer’s attorney, Diana Bass, he “never met, spoke with, or texted, or had contact in any way with Shohei Ohtani”. Mizuhara emphasized that statement, “I want everyone to know Shohei had zero involvement in betting,” Mizuhara told ESPN. “I want people to know I did not know this was illegal. I learned my lesson the hard way. I will never do sports betting ever again. I never bet on baseball, that’s 100%. I knew that rule … We have a meeting about that in Spring Training.”
As of right now, Major League Baseball is looking into this scandal and figuring how who exactly is telling the truth here and what that money from Ohtani’s account was actually taking out for. Was it for personal debts? Was it for sports bets? Did Ohtani actually give that 4.5 million dollars to Mizuhara? Did Bowyer actually play a role in any of this? And most importantly, is this all just a cover for Ohtani to prevent him from getting suspended until further notice by Major League Baseball? I imagine those are all questions that folks that have read into this story might have and likely have many more on their minds.
I won’t lie, I’m not gonna act like I have a single clue as to where all of this going. At this moment, this scandal is so convoluted and full of holes that there is plenty more pieces to the puzzle before any further big action is made. However, if the last thing anything wants to happen does happen and Ohtani gets suspended not just from opening day but also for the future, this could break baseball beyond repair.
Back in December, I was working on doing a piece on how Ohtani’s 700 million dollar contract and the way the Dodgers are handling it could break baseball but I never got to finish it. I was quite upset because I felt I had some good talking points there that no one else is mentioning. As it turns out, I just need to wait a couple more months before talking about another scenario with Shohei Ohtani that could break baseball.
There is no denying that Major League Baseball will do ANYTHING in their power to keep Shohei Ohtani ON the field. He is the highest paid superstar of all time, an absolute sports legend in the makings, and is perhaps the greatest athlete in North American sports history! He is arguably the face of baseball at the moment and they do NOT want to lose that.
They will go through any hoop and any leap of logic to NOT suspend him. They will try to find any evidence possible that it was Mizuhara and Bowyer behind this doing and NOT Ohtani. The MLB might have rules they have forced themselves to stick to but they will always have limits and exceptions.
Here is that rule for anyone that is unaware:
Major League Baseball’s Rule 21 (d)(3) states that “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.”
That right there basically confirms that it will be up to Rob Manfred to decide which punishment, if any, will occur. Considering how badly he messed up the Astros sign-stealing scandal by completely letting them off the hook, no one is trusting him to do the right thing here.
I hope this ends up the best for Shohei Ohtani. He is one of the coolest professional ball players I’ve ever seen and it always feels like a special privilege to watch him pitch and hit whenever I can. I pray he was NOT involved with any illegal sports bets or debts because that is the LAST thing not just what the league wants but what baseball fans want as well.
No matter what you team you root for, we can all agree that Shohei Ohtani is someone truly special for baseball! And if that special someone gets impacted by this for opening day until whenever, then this might break baseball bigger than it ever has before.
Other comments:
- I was gonna do a MLB predictions piece but to be honest, I haven’t followed the offseason like I normally did do to how piss poor my team played last year. Because of that, I don’t think I can come up with a real and honest prediction piece for the 2024 season. Sorry, guys and girls that might have been looking forward to that!
- Secondly, it’s just been reported that Orioles owner Peter Angelos has passed away at the age of 94! May he rest in peace!
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