The tip arrived two weeks ago, and it threatened to engulf Major League Baseball’s biggest star, Shohei Ohtani, in scandal. The name of the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger and pitcher had surfaced in a federal investigation of illegal sports gambling — millions of dollars in payments were allegedly made from his bank account to an illicit bookmaker.
As The Times investigated the tip and began to assemble a story, Ohtani’s representatives scrambled behind the scenes to head it off. The result was a series of shifting accounts of how Ohtani’s name was raised as part of the investigation, with each version presenting him as not being involved in any wrongdoing.