For better or worse, Shohei Ohtani once again baseball’s biggest story

In recent years, Major League Baseball has struggled to promote its stars. While other leagues have positioned their players as some of the most famous people in the world — think Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Lebron James, etc. — many of baseball’s best could probably go out in public and remain completely unrecognized.

But in Shohei Ohtani, baseball finally has a talent who can’t be ignored.

Baseball’s first true twoway superstar since Babe Ruth, Ohtani has achieved superhuman status in his native Japan and broken into the American cultural mainstream unlike any other player of this generation. The two-time MVP recently signed the largest contract in North American professional sports history, and by joining the powerhouse Dodgers, the expectation is he’ll finally have a chance to showcase his talents on the biggest stage in October.

But fame can be a double-edged sword, as MLB learned the hard way these past few weeks.

Right as Ohtani was set to begin his career with the Dodgers, he found himself at the center of a bizarre and unsettling gambling scandal that has taken the sports world by storm.

Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s longtime interpreter, was fired by the team after he allegedly stole millions of dollars from Ohtani to pay off gambling debts. The situation came to light after reporters inquired about $4.5 million in wire transfers sent from Ohtani’s bank account to a bookmaking operation that is under federal investigation.

Those questions led to a rapid series of events in which Mizuhara initially claimed Ohtani had paid off his debts, only to later recant that story after Ohtani reportedly began questioning that version of events following a clubhouse meeting in which Dodgers officials informed the team a negative story was coming.

Ohtani’s lawyers then told ESPN that “in the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft and we are turning the matter over to the authorities.” MLB has since opened a formal investigation into the matter, and baseball fans across the country have been left to wonder just what’s going on.

Given baseball’s unpleasant history with gambling any scandal like this was bound to garner headlines, but Ohtani’s involvement has taken things to another level. Instead of talking about March Madness, NFL free agency or the usual go-to topics like the Lakers or Cowboys, all the national daytime sports talk shows focused on Ohtani, and much of the conversation revolved around the inconsistencies in the story and to what extent Ohtani might have been involved.

For as long as the investigation is ongoing, this situation is going to loom like a cloud over Ohtani and the Dodgers.

At this point Ohtani hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing and the investigation could prove he truly was the victim of Mizuhara’s crimes. It doesn’t seem to have affected his performance either, as Ohtani was batting .385 with an .862 OPS through his first three games with Los Angeles,

but any perception that baseball’s biggest star could be a gambling cheat is a horrible place for the sport to be.

For better or worse Ohtani is going to be the story of this season once again, and hopefully by season’s end for onfield reasons and not because this story has developed in a way that could tar his legacy forever.

Primed for breakout?

In 2022, the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks finished fourth in their respective divisions with fewer than 75 wins and were more than 37 games out of first place.

A year later, the clubs faced off against one another in the World Series.

Things can change quickly in baseball, and six months from now there will probably be at least one team nobody is talking about who will emerge as a surprise contender. Who could that be? Trying to guess now is a recipe for looking foolish down the road, but there are a couple of clubs who fit the profile.

The most likely candidate for a turnaround has to be the St. Louis Cardinals, who have reliably been among the most steady franchises in baseball before the bottom inexplicably fell out last season. St. Louis finished 71-91, its worst season in 33 years, thanks to a perfect storm of underperformance, injuries and the complete collapse of its starting rotation. The Cardinals have since revamped their pitching staff, signing Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson in free agency, and boast a talented lineup led by Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado.