Dugout interaction between Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter had fans so confused about theft accusations
The Los Angeles Dodgers took the baseball world by storm this offseason with a spending spree that brought two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani over from the Angels. But the Dodgers haven’t even made it a week into the season without avoiding drama.
We learned ahead of the Dodgers’ second Seoul Series game against the Padres that the team had fired Ohtani’s longtime interpreter and friend Ippei Mizuhara. Ohtani’s legal team alleged that Mizuhara stole upwards of $4.5 million from Ohtani to pay off gambling debts. This came after Ohtani’s publicist and Mizuhara himself initially said that Ohtani paid off the gambling debts in order to help a friend in need.
The conflicting stories were confusing enough and left plenty of unanswered questions. But one dugout interaction from the first Seoul Series game between Mizuhara and Ohtani had MLB fans especially perplexed.
We could see Ohtani and Mizuhara laughing with each other as if nothing was wrong. This interaction came after ESPN and the Los Angeles Times started their reporting for the story but before the Dodgers fired Mizuhara. The timeline would suggest that both Ohtani and Mizuhara were aware of the situation at that time.
Needless to say, it wasn’t the kind of exchange you’d see between someone who had just had $4.5 million stolen and the alleged thief.
The video only raised the suspicions of MLB fans as they demanded more answers.