[Nightengale] The Los Angeles Dodgers fire Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s long-time interpreter. Mizuhara was accused by Ohtani’s attorneys of engaging in a “massive theft” of Ohtani’s funds to place bets with an illegal bookmaker, according to the LA Times.
The Los Angeles Dodgers fire Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani's long-time interpreter.
Mizuhara was accused by Ohtani's attorneys of engaging in a “massive theft” of Ohtani's funds to place bets with an illegal bookmaker, according to the LA Times.— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 20, 2024
25 comments
is he going to the slammer
$$$$$ brings out the worst in people.
This is so shitty for Shohei ☹️ what an awful betrayal of trust. Tarnishing what should’ve been a career defining year for him in a new org.
Mrs. Ohtani gonna be working overtime
Generational bag fumble
What the hell this came out of nowhere! Isn’t he in Korea with the team?!
#WHAT THE FUCK
Wtf he had the best job in the entire world and he messed it up completely.
This is just so sad.
Holy shit…
Wow.
Ippei was about to have the love and adoration of the entire Dodgers fanbase and all he had to do was not develop a multimillion dollar gambling addiction
Holy fuck this was not something I was expecting to read today. Ippei was so chill and likeable too and was Shohei’s closest friend. This is sad to see.
Terrible. As a translator by profession I was never a fan of Ippei’s translations but I didn’t know he was a shitty human being. Must suck for Ohtani to lose a guy he trusted for many years and acted as his training partner/manager/translator.
His own friend!
Wtf… he’s not only ohtanis interpreter but also his “best friend”. This is sad. I bet ohtani is the kind of person that would forgive but this is one of those things that you don’t forgive. Cut ties and move on or he will keep taking advantage of Ohtani.
I don’t think they’re as buddy as the narrative went
I believe his wife was in the stands with Ohtani’s wife during the game. I’m sure Ohtani and his attorneys have known for a while. He is a gangster for making good face and dropping him off in Korea.
I really hope it’s not Ohtani having a gambling problem and Ippei just happens to be the fall guy since it would look really bad for MLB
There is no conspiracy, Ippei is not a fallguy. Fucking hell, people already trying to paint Ohtani as some gambling mastermind throwing his interpreter under the bus. Ippei fucked up and got caught.
ESPN has a lot more details. Looks like they were about to break it: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39768770/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-interpreter-fired-theft
People in baseball subreddit already coming up with conspiracy theories that Ohtani was involved and his team is making Ippei the “fall guy”.
Ohtani, the guy that risked 100s of millions to come to the US early to play baseball. And the guy that let his mom manage his finance while living on 1k/month when he first started out.
Unbelievable.
I’m speechless.
[This article](https://www.espn.co.uk/mlb/story/_/id/39768770/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-interpreter-fired-theft) has more detail than the LAT
This looks really fishy. This looks like a plausible scenario where Shohei intended to do Ippei a solid by paying his gambling debts. But then things got hot with Ohtani’s name on bank transfers to bookmakers under federal investigation. And now Shohei is in a situation where he could have had his name soiled by the investigation, possibly been charged with a crime, and would have seen some sort of punishment from Major League Baseball. So Shohei’s people changed the story to protect him from being hurt for doing a good thing. Sorry Ippei but you only have yourself to blame here. Ouch.