Official Shohei Ohtani Thread (Update: Ohtani signs with Dodgers 10 years, $700 million)

[Ado05]

The agent isnt responsible for clearing up **** reporting.

[Hero_Panda]

Why didn't the jays as well state they weren't aware of Othani being on the plane, or meeting scheduled, lol..

That's the first thought I came away with.

[Fairview4Life]

The agent isnt responsible for clearing up **** reporting.

Sure. But he could have, when he was directly asked about it while everything was happening, instead of just complaining about it later.

[Cyrus]

Why didn't the jays as well state they weren't aware of Othani being on the plane, or meeting scheduled, lol..

That's the first thought I came away with.

Exactly they have some responsibility in this, as does the agent, and everyone involved really, if agent or blue jays said hold on a second, this is news to us, atleast it wouldn't have went as far as it did.

[Hero_Panda]

Why didn't the jays as well state they weren't aware of Othani being on the plane, or meeting scheduled, lol..

That's the first thought I came away with.

Exactly they have some responsibility in this, as does the agent, and everyone involved really, if agent or blue jays said hold on a second, this is news to us, atleast it wouldn't have went as far as it did.

Thought about it for a while, and I can't for the life of me, think of a good reason why the Blue Jays did not outright say "we currently do not have a meeting with Ohtani scheduled nor are we expecting to meet with Ohtani today".

I believe there was an excerpt where Ohtani's camp felt it was very important nobody leaks any news while negotiations were taking place, but I don't think calling out outright lies leaked to the public and correcting the public perception of the current event would violate Ohtani and his camp's wishes.

Now with the Blue Jays not saying anything throughout that entire day (and there is absolutely no way the Blue Jays org has no idea what news were being spread around), they now look foolish and cuckold that high-tier FAs can just use them to leverage more money from teams they are actually pursuing.

[pilkoids]

This is a real facebook memory of mine from 12 years ago that popped up for me today. The algorithm is bullying me.

[Green Hornet]

The Jays got played like a fiddle and were used as leverage, plain and simple. A historic player like Shohei was never going to come here.

As for people complaining about his deferred salary, the man doesn’t need all that money upfront. He probably makes over 100m per year already just in sponsorships and endorsements.

It’s a bitter pill to swallow but it is what it is.

Just as I was writing this, I decided to search for his New Balance deal and this article came up:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/12/why-shohei-ohtanis-700-million-contract-will-pay-him-long-past-2034.html

It states that he’s already making 50m annually off of endorsements alone and won’t get the chunk of his salary until 2034 (pretty insane). Being the face of the Dodgers, he will attract even more endorsements since LA is a haven for brand deals, pushing it up to the 100m+ mark as I had predicted. He'll easily become a billionaire by the time he retires from the sport.

[JaysRule15]

It's clear that Ohtani and Yamamoto had planned this whole thing out from the start. The Jays, along with other teams were simply used as leverage. The Dodgers will have such an easier time attracting more asian free agents in the future. Thank god they're not in our division.

[Ado05]

It's clear that Ohtani and Yamamoto had planned this whole thing out from the start. The Jays, along with other teams were simply used as leverage. The Dodgers will have such an easier time attracting more asian free agents in the future. Thank god they're not in our division.

Makes no sense considering Ohtani decided what his contract was and presented it to a number of teams.

[Cyrus]

It's interesting tsn had John Gibbons on their radio show and talked about this whole othani thing and asked did you think Jays had a shot, and he basically said 5 years ago Atkins called him and said be ready to go to LA if othani has us in top 5 (back when he signed with angels), but then Atkins called a day later said nvm, we aren't finalist. He said if we weren't then, it was surprising he was considering us now.

[JaysRule15]

It's clear that Ohtani and Yamamoto had planned this whole thing out from the start. The Jays, along with other teams were simply used as leverage. The Dodgers will have such an easier time attracting more asian free agents in the future. Thank god they're not in our division.

Makes no sense considering Ohtani decided what his contract was and presented it to a number of teams.

I think that was him covering his bases. But pretty sure he knew the Dodgers would agree to what he wanted.

[Hottie McShotty]

So interpreter takes almost half of Ohtanis money and he doesn't notice? Ya right. Anyone believe this?

[WuTang_OG]

So interpreter takes almost half of Ohtanis money and he doesn't notice? Ya right. Anyone believe this?

no

they were buddies and clearly betting together

[Ranger One]

Welp. This has been very neatly swept under the rug. Interpreter pleads guilty, take the fall and everyone forgets it ever happened.

[Fairview4Life]

So interpreter takes almost half of Ohtanis money and he doesn't notice? Ya right. Anyone believe this?

:lol: no

they were buddies and clearly betting together

This is from the complaint:

Between Dec. 2021 and Jan. 2024, Mizuhara's betting account placed approximately 19,000 wagers. The wagers averaged roughly $12,800. There were $142,245,769.74 in wins and $182,935,206,68 losses, totaling a $40,678,436.94 hole.

There were no records of bets on baseball games.

In 2018, Mizuhara drove Ohtani, referred to as Victim A in the complaint, to the bank and served as translator when he set up the account Ohtani used to receive his salary from the Angels. This was the account later used to wire money to the illegal bookmaker.

The account was never accessed online between 2018 and Oct. 27, 2021. The account was first accessed approximately one month after Mizuhara gained access to an illegal bookmaker's gambling website.

All of the devices used to access the bank account were devices that were also used to access Mizuhara's personal bank account. All of Mizuhara's winnings were deposited to his personal account, not the account used to pay the bookmaker.

In multiple calls recorded by the bank, Mizuhara pretended to be Ohtani when authorizing the wire transfers, and answered security questions that referenced details of Ohtani's personal life.

Mizuhara is alleged to have continuously asked the bookmaker for credit bumps that were always granted. For the final bump, the bookmaker responded, "Done . I have the same problem . To be honest with you Ippie, as long as you can guarantee the 500 every Monday I’ll give you as much as you want because I know you’re good for it[.]" This was not the only instance of the bookmaker referring to Mizuhara as "Ippie."

The same account used to pay out the bookmaker also showed "approximately $325 thousand in transactions at eBay and Whatnot between Jan. and March 2024."

Mizuhara received packages that were emailed to the clubhouse under the alias "Jay Min." The packages contained baseball cards, including "cards for baseball players Yogi Berra, Juan Soto, and Victim A."

Mizuhara told the bookmaker that he "[lost] a lot of money on crypto."

Ohtani also employed a professional bookkeeper, financial manager, and tax preparer and accountant, who, along with his agent, managed all of his domestic endorsement deals, which were handled in separate accounts. None of them spoke Japanese or hired anyone who spoke Japanese.

Ohtani's agent inquired at multiple points about the bank account that received Ohtani's salary, but Mizuhara told him that Ohtani wished for it to be kept private.

Ohtani only ever asked Mizuhara for overarching updates about his finances and assumed that his agent and financial managers had access to all of his accounts.

An HSI special agent who is a native Japanese speaker reviewed "approximately 9,700 pages of [Ohtani's] text messages" from 2020 to 2024. There was no discussion of sports betting, or Mizuhara's gambling. Ohtani's browser history showed no evidence of gambling.

The scheme almost unraveled in December 2023, when the bookmaker messaged Mizuhara, “Hey Ippie, it’s 2 o’clock on Friday. I don’t know why you’re not returning my calls. I’m here in Newport Beach and I see [Victim A] walking his dog. I’m just gonna go up and talk to him and ask how I can get in touch with you since you’re not responding?"

Mizuhara sent encrypted messages to an illegal bookmaker after The Los Angeles Times and ESPN articles came out. Mizuhara asked the bookmaker, "Have you seen the reports?" The bookmaker responded, "Yes, but that's all bull. Obviously you didn't steal from him. I understand it's a cover job I totally get it." Mizuhara then said, "Technically I did steal from him. it's all over for me."

[DelAbbot]

Imagine we landed Shohei Ohtani

We would be the new Angels