Shohei Ohtani's Year 7 was not ideal following the gambling scandal involving him and his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara.
The interpreter, already fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers, is allegedly $4.5 million in gambling debt. Ohtani is involved because his personal bank accounts were used to make payments to an illegal sports bookie.
The two-way superstar did all he could to not distract his new team from his off-the-field issues, including his romantic relationship, but the news of the betting issue rocked his new chapter still.
Since then, he has maintained that he is innocent and that he did not know of his interpreter's activities.
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While many detractors think his explanation and clarification of his involvement were weak, he finds a friend in a top MLB official who thinks he is innocent.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred believes Ohtani's defense, describing his appearance as "credible" and "transparent."
"I thought Ohtani's public appearance was really credible [and] really transparent, but I think it's incumbent upon us just to make sure that we can verify the story that's there to give our fans absolute assurance about the integrity of the game," Manfred said during an appearance at The Carton Show.
Shohei Ohtani, interpreter gambling scandal to wrap soon
Investigations on cases like Ohtani's and the interpreter's usually take a long while before getting settled, but Manfred shared that this one will not take too long.
"The investigation's moving along. It's hard to characterize exactly how far along you are, but I don't think this is going to be long," he said.
"I think it can be relatively short, and the fact that there is a parallel federal investigation, I think in this particular case, may actually help us."
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