Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, has been sentenced to five years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud last year. One of the most popular narratives around the scandal was that the interpreter had just been the fall guy for the Japanese slugger. Speaking on the matter, MLB insider Ken Rosenthal is giving his thoughts on the story of Ohtani being a victim who never really knew about the money being stolen by his trusted interpreter.

Ohtani seemingly had immense trust in Mizuhara until the gambling allegations and missing money came to light as part of a larger investigation involving illegal sports bookmaking. So now, Mizuhara has been sentenced to around five years in jail and needs to pay $18 million in reparations as well.

MLB insider assumes no foul play in the Shohei Ohtani scandal

While Ippei Mizuhara was part of the close inner circle of the Dodgers’ Japanese superstar, Shohei Ohtani, it reportedly didn’t stop him from stealing huge amounts of money to pay his gambling debts and deals with an illegal bookmaker from South California. This came as a surprise for Ohtani, who had immense trust in him until it was broken by Mizuhara, who not only stole money but also evaded tax.

Ken Rosenthal, in a talk with Foul Territory, said, “Well, I continue to hear from people mostly on social media, but even friends of mine who say I don’t get it, man, there’s no way Shohei couldn’t have known something fishy and listened from the outside; absolutely, this is a weird deal. And yeah, something was fishy. However, do we have proof of any of it? No, and if you are saying to me, Shohei, Ippei just took the fall for Shohei, really? He’s going to spend five years in jail, and that’s what it’s going to be.” 

Rosenthal confessed about the people questioning Shohei Ohtani and how he seemed unknown to anything that had happened, citing no evidence available to prove anything. He also said, “Reporters, including myself, were really checking into this and trying to do our best to figure out what went wrong here. We wanted to figure out if anything was truly linked to Shohei, and obviously, we never have found anything.”

Rosenthal even went through the audio tapes and reports but found nothing, even praising Ohtani for being the person he has always been, focused entirely on baseball. While he tried his best to delve deeper into this matter and identify any links of the two-way player in this scandal, nothing was found at all.

Rosenthal even confirmed the calls made by Mizuhara to the bank when impersonating Shohei Ohtani and finally accepting that it was Mizuhara’s fault, and Ohtani actually never knew about it. While Ippei Mizuhara has been sentenced to around five years in prison, he has requested 18 months in prison.

Mizuhara turning from a friend to foe hurts Ohtani

Ippei Mizuhara was not just an interpreter for the Japanese superstar but also a close friend who used to accompany him everywhere he went. Shohei Ohtani often considered him a trusted friend, who not only managed his daily activities and financials but also managed healthy interactions between Ohtani and his fans and teammates.

Mizuhara had total control and access over his bank account, which helped him manage the funds. Once getting access to the confidential, the interpreter had reportedly started stealing money to pay his debts related to gambling activities. He was even found guilty of betting that involved $183 million in losses and around $142 million in terms of winnings that were conducted with a bookmaker.

However, the mistake that cost him was frequently contacting the bank and impersonating Ohtani, which led to suspicion, and he was eventually found guilty. Mizuhara apologized for his mistake and agreed to do whatever he could; however, the mistake had been made.

Do you think there is any sort of involvement of Shohei Ohtani in the gambling scandal, or are they just rumours that are doing the rounds? Let us know in the comment below.