Shohei Ohtani’s ex-interpreter faces damning claims; A’s closer Mason Miller is throwing gas

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This Ippei Mizuhara story is absolutely stunning. Ken digs into it today, and we have notes on a fireballer in Oakland and play our favorite game: Which Team Does This Sweep Tell Us More About? (Royals vs. Astros edition). I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal, who leads off today — welcome to The Windup!

Ken’s Notebook: Investigation supports Shohei Ohtani’s theft claims

From my most recent column:

If this isn’t exoneration for Shohei Ohtani, it’s as good as it gets, barring some other bombshell. Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, is presumed innocent, but the federal government’s 37-page criminal complaint against him is damning. One of the text messages obtained by the government from Mizuhara to his bookmaker regarding Ohtani — “Technically, I did steal from him” — would appear to be the evidentiary equivalent of a mic drop.

People will believe what they want to believe. In this age of social media and politicized network television, conspiracy theories abound. But Thursday’s developments weren’t the result of a Major League Baseball investigation, which might prompt more skepticism, considering Ohtani’s value to the sport. Nor can they simply be dismissed as Mizuhara “taking the fall” for Ohtani in exchange for a massive payoff, not when what he’s charged with, bank fraud, comes with a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

No, this investigation was the work of the United States Department of Justice, in concert with the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Homeland Security. At a news conference Thursday, U.S. attorney Martin Estrada clearly and emphatically labeled Ohtani a victim, while describing Mizuhara as the player’s “de facto manager” and yes, the perpetrator of massive theft. The complaint against Mizuhara accuses him of stealing more than $16 million from Ohtani to finance what Estrada called the interpreter’s “insatiable appetite” for illegal sports gambling.

According to the complaint, Mizuhara had access to the bank account Ohtani set up for his baseball salary. He refused to provide the same access to Ohtani’s professional advisors, including the player’s agent, Nez Balelo of CAA, saying Ohtani wanted to keep the account private. Mizuhara impersonated Ohtani in conversations with bank officials so he could make wire transfers to his illegal bookmaker. And in 19,000 wagers between Dec. 2021 and Jan. 2024, he won about $142 million gambling and lost about $183 million for a net loss of nearly $41 million. The investigation found no evidence he bet on baseball.

Ohtani, in his one news conference on the matter, said he was unaware of Mizuhara’s gambling. The complaint supports that claim. The government, in reviewing text message conversations between Ohtani and Mizuhara, found no discussion of gambling and no authorization of the wire transfers from Ohtani’s account to the bookmaker. If Ohtani is guilty of anything, based on the complaint, it’s of putting too much trust in a man he considered his friend. Of paying too little attention to his finances. Of being naive.

None of that is a crime. None of it warrants a suspension from Major League Baseball. Ohtani would not be the first sports legend to be duped out of millions or lose money because of carelessness or mismanagement. John Elway, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bobby Orr are but three examples.

More Ohtani: Fabian Ardaya sifts through the most startling claims against Mizuhara.

Mason Miller is dominating this leaderboard

Mason Miller throws real hard. (Raymond Carlin III / USA Today)

If you look at the Baseball Savant leaderboards for the fastest pitches thrown this year, you might be surprised to learn that A’s closer Mason Miller is dominating the category. Before yesterday, Miller already had the top two spots (and six of the top 10).

Miller set a new season high yesterday in the ninth inning. In fact, he threw the three fastest pitches in MLB this year, all in the same inning. First, he hit 102.9 mph to Corey Seager, then hit 102.6 and 103.3 to Wyatt Langford.

In five games this year, Miller has already thrown 46 pitches over 100 mph. Nobody else in the league has more than 24 (Michael Kopech), and Hunter Greene is third, at 17. Oh, and Miller has done it in 126 pitches (an absurd 36.5 percent). Kopech has thrown 135 total pitches, Greene 304.

Miller has the benefit of being a closer, able to air it out one inning at a time. His fastball averaged “just” 98.3 mph last year when six of his 10 appearances came as a starter.

Interestingly, he’s not the only A’s pitcher having success this year, at least in one particular category. Going into yesterday’s games, A’s pitchers had the third-lowest home run rate in the sport, at 0.58 home runs per nine. They trail only the Guardians (0.42) and Royals (0.33).

Speaking of the Royals …

Are the Royals this good, or the Astros this bad?

After the Pirates swept the Marlins in four games to open the season, I posed the question: Are the Pirates this good, or are the Marlins this bad? Let’s run the question back because the Royals (9-4) just swept the Astros (4-10). The last game of the series wasn’t even close, as Kansas City jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the first inning, cruising to a 13-3 win.

I found it interesting that in many offensive categories, the Royals and Astros are in fairly close approximation to one another — somewhere in the middle of the upper half of team rankings. The biggest difference in their records appears to be on the pitching side, so let’s focus on that.

Kansas City: It was always going to be interesting to see how things shook out in Kansas City after their extremely active offseason. The front office seemed convinced that the team would contend in the AL Central, but with that much turnover, it’s hard to predict the outcome.

So far, so good. The Royals’ pitching staff ranks in the top two in ERA, FIP, HR/9 and fWAR. I couldn’t help but wonder how these guys are measuring up against their career numbers.

All are performing significantly better than their career numbers, so let’s take a look at their FIP, which can sometimes be a shortcut to discovering good or bad luck.

Lugo and Singer are getting a bit lucky, but still appear vastly improved. Wacha and Ragans seem to be pretty much doing what it looks like they’re doing. Marsh has actually been a bit unlucky.

Verdict: There’s a deeper dive to be had on whether these numbers are outliers or an indication of adjustments or improvements. As a unit, I don’t think they’re this good, but I think they’re better than expected.

Houston: The Astros currently have five starting pitchers on the IL (Luis Garcia, Lance McCullers Jr., José Urquidy, Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander). Of late, it has been very apparent how much losing an entire starting rotation can impact a club. Check out these (admittedly cherry-picked) performances:

• Apr. 11 — Hunter Brown: 2/3 IP, 11 hits, 9 runs, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts
• Apr. 10* — Spencer Arrighetti: 3 IP, 7 hits, 7 runs, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts
• Apr. 8* — Blair Henley: 1/3 IP, 4 hits, 5 runs, 3 walks, 0 strikeouts
• Apr. 5 — Hunter Brown: 3 IP, 8 hits, 5 runs, 4 walks, 3 strikeouts

*MLB debut

Cristian Javier and J.P. France have been passable, and Ronel Blanco has been maybe the best pitcher in baseball through two starts. But the bullpen — depleted by both free agency and injury — has also underperformed. Getting Verlander back will help, but Javier and McCullers aren’t expected to return until the second half.

As Chandler Rome has pointed out on more than one occasion: The problem is pitching depth, plain and simple.

Verdict: They’re not this bad, but the dynasty appears to be in peril.

Baseball Card of the Week

The 1986 World Series is my earliest memory of baseball (we do not acknowledge a disastrous T-ball season earlier that year). Even with a sub-rudimentary understanding of the rules and no concept whatsoever of the Curse of the Bambino, I remember feeling bad for Buckner.

When I started collecting cards a few years later, I began to see him in a new light. This hirsute goat — that word used to mean the opposite of what it does now — was actually pretty good at baseball?

Indeed. He led the league in batting average in 1980 and twice led it in doubles. His 184 first-base assists in 1985 set a record that held until Albert Pujols notched 185 in 2009.

It’s unfortunate that his name became synonymous with The Curse, at least until it was broken in 2004. I’m glad he got his redemption before his passing in 2019.

Handshakes and High Fives

Tyler Kepner’s weekly “Sliders” column starts with Jackie Robinson, but as always, there is so much more. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite weekly reads, on this site or anywhere else.

Today’s oral history by Tim Britton on what it was like to face Dwight Gooden is like having a conversation with a pack of baseball cards.

David O’Brien examines a Braves rotation that is suddenly a bit shaky after the loss of Spencer Strider.

Sunday morning baseball appears to be departing from the Peacock network, though it is expected there will be a new partner this season.

Kyle Hendricks has been a rotation mainstay for the Cubs for a decade. But his numbers have been exceptionally bad this year. What can the Cubs do?

You can buy tickets to every MLB game here.

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(Top photo: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)