IT’S A MADD MADD WORLD...

As if the burgeoning gambling scandal with Shohei Ohtani’s fired interpreter isn’t bad enough, the Dodgers may have even bigger concerns over their $3 2 5 million righty Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was hit hard in his last two spring training outings then failed to get out of the first inning of his major league debut Thursday, allowing five runs on four hits, a walk, a hit batter and a wild pitch. He threw just 2 3 pitches, averaging 9 5 .4 mph with his fastball before Dodger manager Dave Roberts mercifully lifted him. Meanwhile, if as Ohtani’s reps are claiming, that his interpreter and close friend Ippei Mizuhara engaged in massive theft of Ohtani’s money to pay off gambling debts is proven to be the real story, the scandal will slowly go away. But if it’s determined that Ohtani himself paid off his friend’s gambling debt — as Mizuhara said in a since-retracted interview with ESPN Tuesday — the $7 0 0 million toast of baseball could be facing serious federal charges, not to mention being perilously close to violating baseball’s rule on gambling. …Here’s a loud and hearty boo for Orioles GM Mike Elias, who lamely tried to explain Friday why baseball’s No. 1 overall prospect Jackson Holliday would not be opening the season with the O’s despite going 6 -for-1 4 with two homers, six RBI, two steals and no errors this spring. Elias claimed the O’s felt Holiday needed some extra time adjusting to switching positions from shortstop to second base. Had nothing to do, of course, with Holliday spending a couple more weeks in the minors so they could gain extra year of service time. “This is a 2 0 -year-old that has played 1 8 games in Triple-A and is also in a position change and has not faced or had the opportunity to produce a ton against upper-level minor league left-handed pitching in particular. This is where we’ve landed for now.”