"We have gone slowly and deferred": MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred defends slow action in Shohei Ohtani's case amid federal investigation

The unfolding of the chain of events led to the firing of Shohei Ohtani's former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. It was found and claimed in a federal investigation report that Mizuhara had placed bets with an illegal bookmaker from Orange County, Mathew Bowyer. Following that, the MLB launched an investigation to look into Shohei Ohtani and Mizuhara's involvement in the gambling scandal.

In a recent report from ESPN, David Fletcher, a former teammate of Ohtani, also placed bets with the same bookie, leading the MLB to launch another investigation.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said that the investigation concerning them has been slowed and kind of deferred. Manfred reckons it's better to wait for the legal process to play out before the league takes any action.

“With respect to the situation involving the interpreter, you have to make a judgment,” Manfred said of MLB’s investigative approach. “The federal investigation was so far down the road.

"There was such a potential for us to interfere in an unproductive way in that investigation, that we have gone slowly and deferred to, hopefully, what will be the outcome of that in fairly short order.” [via The Athletic].

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Rob Manfred talks about league's limited resources to investigate

Although Rob Manfred's investigation department is led by former Justice Department lawyers, he believes the feds have more tools at their disposal to investigate the case.

“I love our DOI people. I think they do a hell of a job with what they’ve got to work with,” Manfred said. “The feds have a lot more tools than we do. It’s just that simple.”

Manfred also spoke about limited resources when it comes to monitor illegal bets and that they mostly have to trust press reports or a criminal investigation before making any decision.

“The bets were not being placed in a legal betting operation,” Manfred said.

“So there is no monitoring, right? We have no way to know what an illegal bookmaker is doing. … And by definition, in most cases we’re going to be chasing, usually a press report or a criminal investigation.”

Ippei Mizuhara reportedly pleaded guilty on May 14 in an arrangement scheduled for one count of bank fraud and another count of false tax return.

Meanwhile, the investigation regarding David Fletcher is still ongoing, and it remains to be seen if anything comes out of it.