Given the character of the allegations involving money owed with an unlawful bookmaker, a report of $4.5 million in funds, claims of “huge theft”. and Dodgers catcher Ippei Mizuhara firing, it appeared inevitable Main League Baseball would examine this week's information surrounding Shohei Ohtani.
On Friday, the league workplace made it official.
“Main League Baseball has been gathering data since we discovered in regards to the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhari from the media,” MLB mentioned in a press release. “Earlier at this time, our Division of Investigations (DOI) started its formal course of to research the matter.”
The Dodgers fired Mizuhara on Wednesday after studies from the Los Angeles Occasions and ESPN detailed playing money owed Mizuhara racked up with an Orange County bookmaker that’s below federal investigation. Ohtani's attorneys launched a press release calling it “huge theft.”
Tisha Thompson at ESPN posted a timeline of final week's occasions that included her 90-minute interview with Mizuhara, which was later retracted by Mizuhara, in addition to a crew assembly within the Dodgers clubhouse after the day of opening on Wednesday in Seoul, South Korea.
In Thompson's timeline, she notes that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred was first knowledgeable of one thing happening with Ohtani. “A supply mentioned later that MLB started looking for solutions from federal authorities in California earlier Monday, however obtained no response,” he wrote.
