SEOUL, South Korea — Thursday night, an ocean away from Dodger Stadium, Shohei Ohtani did something he had never done in his storied, relentlessly pristine MLB career.

Because Thursday night, roughly 12 hours after news broke that the Los Angeles Dodgers had fired Ohtani’s longtime friend and interpreter Ippei Mizuhara amid allegations that Mizuhara stole millions from his friend to cover gambling debts, Ohtani jogged onto a baseball field enveloped by scandal.

By the time he did, a few things were clear: First, that the Dodgers terminated Mizuhara after Wednesday night’s game, ending a partnership with Ohtani that began in 2013 during Ohtani’s days with the Nippon Ham Fighters. Second, Ohtani’s representatives claimed he was a victim of “massive theft,” though by whom they wouldn’t say.

Reports in the Los Angeles Times and ESPN connected some of the dots, reporting that Mizuhara had accumulated millions in gambling debt. But what wasn’t clear, as of gametime in Seoul – where the Dodgers were facing the San Diego Padres in a season-opening global showcase of the sport – is whether Ohtani knew about the debt and whether he willfully loaned Mizuhara money to cover it: Mizuhara initially told ESPN in an interview that Ohtani did know and covered the debt before Ohtani’s representatives disputed that narrative and suggested it was, instead, theft.

The remaining murkiness meant that on the field before Thursday’s game, snippets of hushed conversation could be heard in English and Spanish and Japanese and Korean – conversations between reporters and team officials and anyone with a pulse, really – about exactly how much Ohtani knew and when he knew it, or exactly how involved he might have been. To be clear, no one – including Mizuhara – has alleged any gambling on Ohtani’s part. But no one is more financially important to his team and the league than Ohtani is, either.

Sports betting is legal in 38 states, but it is not yet legal in California, where Ohtani has played his entire MLB career. But offshore sports betting, which operates in a murky area, does not require upfront payment for bets, relying instead on credit.

Meanwhile, MLB’s collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union makes clear that players are not allowed to bet on baseball in any form, at any level, including in the form of fantasy sports. Mizuhara told ESPN he knew this and did not bet on baseball. But it also makes clear that players are allowed to place legal bets on other sports, though “illegal bets on any sport or event, including bets placed with illegal bookmakers or illegal offshore sports betting websites or applications” are prohibited.

Whatever its specifics, the scandal was as palpable Thursday afternoon as it was invisible. Where photographers had once lined up to shoot the arrival of team buses, fences stood instead. Security did not let them film player arrivals Thursday. No one said exactly why. No one really had to.

The Dodgers clubhouse, too, was marked more by who was not there than who was. A few players wandered in and out, glancing at reporters, as if wondering if someone might approach. Few hung around for long. At one point there were 30 reporters and no players in the clubhouse, a noteworthy ratio even for a veteran team like the Dodgers adept at making itself scarce. And at Ohtani’s locker sat a backpack and a massive water bottle, evidence that Ohtani was indeed at the stadium.

Absent Ohtani, it was Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts who was left to answer the questions being asked across two continents. He said he couldn’t.

“I can’t say anything,” Roberts said, when asked about his reaction to Mizuhara’s firing. He also said he couldn’t comment on what Mizuhara said to the Dodgers after his termination. ESPN had reported Mizuhara addressed the Dodgers and took responsibility for the scandal.

“Anything with that, the meeting, I can’t comment,” Roberts said. “I’m sorry.”

The one thing Roberts would say is that he wasn’t worried about distraction for Ohtani, and that Ohtani was in a hitters meeting at the time of his news conference. He said the Dodgers did not consider sitting their superstar, who was in the lineup hitting second, as he was in Wednesday night’s opener.

But unlike Wednesday, Ohtani did not take the field to stretch with his teammates before batting practice. In fact, he never emerged for pregame warm-ups at all, though that isn’t a total departure from the norm: Ohtani rarely takes batting practice on the field before games, preferring to hit off a machine in the cages instead. When he jogged out for introductions – to the usual, undaunted roar – Ohtani wore a taut smile. He hit the first pitch he saw into right for a line drive single. Business as usual. Nothing to see here.

And in some ways, it was: Fans in Ohtani jerseys, or even full uniform, posed for pictures outside the stadium Thursday. Signs reading “Goatani” or “Ohtani Hit It Here” were visible in the stands. The crowd still roared every time they found a reason. Ohtani’s legacy changed forever Thursday. But that does not mean it was tarnished. Within an hour of the news breaking, inboxes of Dodgers staff were filled with applications to serve as his interpreter.

“I hope the situation – I hope Sho is good,” his teammate Mookie Betts said, when asked about how the situation affected his team Thursday. “At the end of the day, we have to take care of our jobs … no matter what cards we’re dealt, we’ve gotta go play ’em.”

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