Dodgers players surprised by Shohei Ohtani's composure: 'Betrayal is hard'

"We're all behind the guy," Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. "For me, where I come from, you're innocent until proven guilty. So the guy has told us face to face what he believes is the truth. That's what I'm going off of, and I believe him 100 percent. I have his back on that."

As shocking as it was for the Dodgers to wake up to news of the scandal last Thursday in South Korea, where they were playing a season-opening two-game series against the San Diego Padres, they seemed to have found their equilibrium during the 11 1/2-hour flight home from Seoul and the next four days in Los Angeles.

In fact, they have moved from their initial insistence that the scandal won't be a distraction — "It's been behind us since we left Korea," Hernández said — to a belief that it might have a galvanizing effect as the club circles the wagons around its new star.

"It's a hard thing to move on from, especially for him, and you definitely feel for the guy, but he's starting to see how we act as a group in this clubhouse and to know that we all have each other's backs and we're going to move forward through this," Muncy said.

"You obviously don't hope for things like this to happen, and it's yet to be seen how we come out of this. But I think it's good for him to see exactly what kind of group we have here, and hopefully that will help him through this."

The Dodgers, with their $300 million payroll and World-Series-or-bust expectations, resume the regular season with Thursday's home opener against the St. Louis Cardinals, and they — and especially Ohtani — seem determined not to let the scandal derail them.

"The guy has been amazing in the clubhouse — he's being professional, being quiet about it and taking care of his stuff," infielder Miguel Rojas said. "I can't talk about what he's feeling, but I can talk about being a teammate of his, and to see him go through that, it's a lot. I feel for the guy. All you can do is be here for him and support him."

Kelly, the Dodgers reliever, came away from the news conference with an even higher opinion of Ohtani, the two-time American League most valuable player who is already considered the best all-around player in the game.

"It's kind of sad to see, it's a tough spot, but he's been pretty strong," Kelly said. "He's handled it like a pro, better than I probably would. It's cool to see him deal with it and still play and be able to focus on what he gets paid for."