Former Angel, current Brave reportedly used Ippei Mizuhara’s bookie to bet on sports

Just one game into Shohei Ohtani's Los Angeles Dodgers career, he was already right in the middle of one of the biggest sports betting scandals in history. It turns out that his interpreter and close friend Ippei Mizuhara stole over $16 million from him to pay for his mounds of gambling debts that he owed to an illegal bookie. Ohtani has been just about cleared, but Mizuhara is in very hot water.

Mizuhara wound up turning himself in to authorities and is waiting to accept a plea deal in the not-too-distant future for his wrongdoings. Turns out, there's more to the story than we thought there was.

ESPN's Tisha Thompson delivered a bombshell report saying that David Fletcher, Ohtani's former teammate with the Los Angeles Angels and a player who is currently in the Atlanta Braves organization, bet with Mizuhara's illegal bookie.

New details emerge in stunning Shohei Ohtani-Ippei Mizuhara case

"Fletcher's close friend, Colby Schultz, who played in the Kansas City Royals' system from 2018 to 2020, placed bets on baseball, including on Angels games that Fletcher played in while he was on the team, multiple sources told ESPN."

Not only Fletcher, but Fletcher's friend, Colby Schultz, who played in the Kansas City Royals minor league system, bet on sports, including baseball games that Fletcher participated in, with the illegal bookmaker.

"MLB players and employees are allowed to bet on sports other than baseball -- but not with illegal bookmakers such as Bowyer. The league rulebook states that players betting with illegal bookmakers are subject to punishment at the commissioner's discretion. A player who bets on baseball games in which he did not participate will be banned for one year. Any player who bets on his own games will be banned permanently."

While Fletcher placing bets with an illegal bookmaker will almost certainly result in some sort of punishment from MLB, it's important to note that it was found that he did not bet on baseball. Betting with an illegal bookmaker is bad, but it'd be much worse if he bet on baseball, especially in games that he played in.

"MLB declined to comment, but a league source told ESPN that Fletcher had not previously been investigated, but is now expected to be."

Fletcher was not initially supposed to be investigated for any wrongdoing in this case even though he knew Mathew Bowyer, the illegal bookmaker, but now is expected to be according to ESPN. He was in the lineup for Gwinnett on Friday, Atlanta's Triple-A affiliate, but who knows how many more games he'll be able to play before action is taken.

This is another big blow for Ohtani, as Fletcher was seen as his best friend on the team. The two would talk on the bus and at the hotel on road trips according to Fletcher. Now, Fletcher was found to have participated in illegal activities with the illegal bookmaker.

Did he know about Mizuhara's activity? We can only wonder.