Dodgers’ Dave Roberts Hopes For More Direct Communication With Shohei Ohtani
When he managed the Angels, Joe Maddon routinely praised Ippei Mizuhara’s ability to serve as a go-between communicator for two-way star Shohei Ohtani. As Ohtani’s personal interpreter, there were obvious instances when an Japanese-to-English translation was necessary, or vice versa.
There were less obvious instances too. Maddon once described to Sports Illustrated how he would rely on text messages with Mizuhara to give the team necessary updates that would ordinarily come from a player himself.
That degree of reliance might not have been representative of the industry standard among Japanese players and their interpreters. It was for Ohtani and Mizuhara, as the last week has taught us.
Last Wednesday in Seoul, the Dodgers fired Mizuhara upon learning he had squandered some $4.5 million of Ohtani’s personal money to cover his gambling debts. Ohtani addressed the matter for the first time in public Monday, saying he had no knowledge of Mizuhara transferring money from his bank accounts, alleging theft.
In the wreckage of the public breakup between Ohtani and his interpreter, the Dodgers might have found a positive: less reliance on an interpreter.
The Dodgers replaced Mizuhara with Will Ireton, who joined the organization as Kenta Maeda’s interpreter in 2016. Ireton remained with the Dodgers in a variety of roles after Maeda was traded to the Minnesota Twins in 2020. He and Ohtani had no personal relationship prior to this season.
