A major controversy broke for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the aftermath of their Opening Day Seoul Series win over the San Diego Padres after reports came out that Shohei Ohtani's interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, was accused of theft. The Dodgers wasted no time in firing Mizuhara, relieving him of his duties to the organization just three months after coming along as a package deal with the Japanese international.
At the moment, there is no confirmation that Mizuhara is, indeed, guilty of the accusations hurled towards him. The Dodgers, however, have released a statement, preferring to keep mum until more information has surfaced as they conduct a thorough investigation of the matter.
“The Dodgers are aware of media reports and are gathering information. The team can confirm that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara has been terminated. The team has no further comment at this time,” the statement reads, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
How serious are the theft accusations towards Shohei Ohtani's interpreter?
Shohei Ohtani has been close with Ippei Mizuhara before he stepped foot in the MLB. The two shared a locker room dating back to their days with the Nippon Ham Fighters of NPB, serving as the team interpreter for English-speaking players. When Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Angels prior to the 2018 season, the Angels brought Mizuhara in to serve as the two-way star's personal interpreter, helping him adjust to life stateside.
Thus, it's a rather surprising development that Mizuhara is being accused of stealing millions of dollars from the current Dodgers superstar, jeopardizing what has been a fruitful relationship with Ohtani to this point. According to reports, Mizuhara used the money he stole to gamble with the involvement of an “allegedly illegal bookmaker”.
More reports have since then surfaced, accusing Ippei Mizuhara of stealing up to $4.5 million from Shohei Ohtani's bank account; according to the rumor mill, Mizuhara wired the aforementioned amount of money directly to the account of the associate of Matthew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookie. Bowyer reportedly is under federal investigation after running a sports gambling setup in California — a state where doing so is against the law.
Moreover, regulated sportsbooks do not allow bettors to pay with credit; this reportedly allowed Mizuhara to incur a considerable amount of debt, requiring him to bail himself out by wiring money from the Dodgers superstar's bank account.
Ippei Mizuhara then contended that Shohei Ohtani was aware of his gambling debts and that the Dodgers superstar offered to pay them off. However, the recently-fired interpreter maintained that Ohtani was not involved in any of his betting activities.
Shohei Ohtani's Dodgers tenure is off to a topsy-turvy start
Shohei Ohtani's Dodgers stint could not have gotten off to a better start on the field. They took a 5-2 win against the Padres to mark the start of the 2024 MLB regular season, with Ohtani tallying two base hits and one run batted in in five at-bats.
Off the field, however, it has been quite an eventful past few days for the Dodgers. In addition to the Ippei Mizuhara controversy, the authorities in Seoul had to beef up security after a man based in Japan sent a bomb threat.
Amid all the hullabaloo, however, the Dodgers will have to focus on getting their second win of the season when they take on the Padres in the final game of the Seoul Series tomorrow morning at 6:05 PM E.T.
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