The biggest concern is that a player who is essentially a minority owner of the Dodgers has been linked to payments to an illegal bookmaking operation totaling at least $4.5 million amid swirls of changing narratives and conflicting stories.

When your name is associated with that much cloaked money in that sort of rutted environment, what else is involved? How many different nasty elements can seep through the cracks and engulf you in your recklessness? If your highest paid player is that careless with $4.5 million, how much can you trust him to be the caretaker of your four million fans?

It's interesting that when Major League Baseball last week announced its investigation into the matter, it cited, "allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara."

Read that again. The statement didn't just mention Mizuhara. It cited both of them.

Neither man has been charged with a crime. Ohtani has not been accused of placing any bets, on baseball or otherwise, and in his prepared statement he said he has, "never bet on anything or bet for anyone on a sporting event or asked someone to bet for me."

Yet Mizuhara is ruined, and Ohtani is tainted, and it could be months before the truth finally emerges.

There are no winners here. There is only a loss of innocence, a summer of purgatory and the sad cynicism surrounding a man previously known in Japan as, kanpeki no hito.

"The perfect person."

Maybe one day, but not now.

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