In an ESPN report, however, a spokesman for Ohtani said the two-way sensation transferred at least $4.5 million to Bowyer’s bookmaking operation to cover Mizuhara’s gambling debt. Mizuhara sat for an interview with ESPN on Tuesday night, but as ESPN prepared to publish the story on Wednesday, the spokesman disavowed Mizuhara’s detailed account, which included claims that he’d bet through DraftKings before and assumed his bets with Bowyer were legal.

“I want everyone to know Shohei had zero involvement in betting,” Mizuhara, who was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday, told ESPN. “I want people to know I did not know this was illegal. I learned my lesson the hard way. … “I’m terrible [at gambling.] Never going to do it again. Never won any money. I mean, I dug myself a hole and it kept on getting bigger, and it meant I had to bet bigger to get out of it and just kept on losing. It’s like a snowball effect.”

Mizuhara added that he bet on several sports but never baseball, and an attorney for Bowyers, whose home was reportedly raided by federal agents in October, said he has never had any contact with Ohtani. Unlike in most of the United States, sports betting is not legal in California.