It’s easy to empathize with Shohei Ohtani. To get swindled by someone you believed more than anyone else is heartbreaking. For a person like Ohtani perhaps it’s not the lost money that hurts but the lost trust, after all, he’s the man who deferred most of his salary. However, while it might be a personal tragedy, this situation is also a legal issue. And to help map out the story, Ohtani has provided the timeline of Ippei Mizuhara’s alleged “betrayal.” 

In his 12-minute press conference, Shotime categorically rejected knowing anything about the payments made through his name. In fact, the superstar revealed that he didn’t even know about Mizuhara’s gambling problems! Now that has brought forth two questions – when did Shohei Ohtani come to find out and how did Mizuhara get his account details? 

Shohei Ohtani’s timeline raises even more questions 

The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya was sitting in the room where Ohtani was supposed to make his statement. After some waiting, the two-way phenom emerged from the background with a statement in his hand. Thanking the reporters, he began by first acknowledging how sad he felt about Mizuhara’s betrayal. However, as the statement progressed the real meat of his story came into the picture.

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Ohtani noted Mizuhara’s comments wherein the interpreter said that the superstar had paid the bookie on his own accord to pay off Mizuhara’s debts. The 2x MVP called that story a complete “lie” and revealed how he came to know about Mizuhara’s gambling problems right when the rest of the Los Angeles Dodgers team did. 

“There was something amiss,” Ohtani felt during Mizuhara’s emergency postgame team meeting during the Seoul Series. In that meeting, the interpreter revealed his gambling habit and then apologized to the team. While Shotime understood the gist of everything, the technicalities escaped him due to the absence of a translator beside him.

So when Ohtani reached his hotel room he immediately asked Mizuhara to explain everything. Only then did he get to know the extent of debt that Mizuhara was under. Ohtani also found out that his interpreter-cum-friend had been taking money from his account to pay off his debts. Now the question arises – how did Mizuhara get the superstar’s account details?

Questions are being raised regarding Mizuhara knowing account details of Shotime

Fabian Ardaya and many other reporters have consistently asked one question – how did Mizuhara get the account information of Shohei Ohtani? While that is a giant mystery, it isn’t something out of the ordinary for Ohtani. The “Yakyu Shonen” as he’s known in Japan has always solely focused on baseball. Despite earning millions of dollars as a teenager he lived off his mother’s allowance and let her control his finances.

Would it be surprising if his habit of delegating his finances never really left? While that is a giant speculation, it fits with everything we know about Ohtani. Still with the investigation ongoing, it will soon be found out how Mizuhara found his credentials and how much money left his account. With new information coming in every day, this Ippei Mizuhara nightmare has just begun for the two-way superstar.

Shohei Ohtani Addresses Ippei Mizuhara Scandal, Teammates Support Two-Way Phenom as Dodgers’ World Series Focus Returns