With more than a decade as an international baseball star under his belt and his signature on a $700 million contract, being at the center of attention is nothing new for Shohei Ohtani.

But this time is different.

Just when it seemed like Ohtani couldn't possibly loom larger over Major League Baseball, suddenly he's a main character in a gambling scandal that already has a place among the most salacious in baseball history. Which is saying something, considering that said history covers everything from the 1919 Black Sox to the lifetime banishment of Pete Rose.

What twists and turns the story may yet take, nobody knows for now. What's for sure in the meantime is that Ohtani is staring down his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, for which (if you'll pardon the expression) the stakes couldn't be higher.

It's only the first season of a 10-year deal, but we're talking about a deal unlike any other and a team with beyond sky-high expectations. Ohtani was but one piece of a $1.2 billion offseason splurge by the Dodgers, who were already on an 11-year run as MLB's most consistent winner.

"It's World Series or nothing," Mookie Betts, one of Ohtani's three fellow MVPs on the Dodgers, said in February.

At the center of all this is Ohtani. And no matter how high, low or sideways things get, that's not going to change.

In other words, it's The Year of Shohei Ohtani all over again.

The Downfall of Ohtani? It Could Happen.

Say it ain't so, Joe? Meet say it ain't so, Sho.

The situation surrounding Ohtani, ex-interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and a California bookmaker named Mathew Bowyer is complicated, to say the least. The full story is best understood through reporting from Gustavo Arellano, Adam Elmahrek, Nathan Fenno and Paul Pringle of the Los Angeles Times and Tisha Thompson of ESPN.

The most innocent possible explanation is that Ohtani himself is, well, innocent.

This was the company line when the allegations surfaced last week, with Ohtani's camp calling "massive theft" on Mizuhara regarding transfers of $4.5 million of Ohtani's money to Bowyer. The two-time MVP generally stuck to it in a news conference on Monday.

It's not just fans who are hoping this is true. The Dodgers obviously have a lot invested in the 29-year-old, and ditto for companies that are paying him a reported $65 million in endorsement money just for this year. And for MLB, Ohtani is an attraction unlike any the league has had since...well, maybe ever.

The league has nonetheless opened an investigation into the matter, about which there are three hugely important questions:

1. How could Mizuhara access and transfer Ohtani's money without his knowledge?
2. Were there bets on baseball?
3. If so, were the bets on games Ohtani was involved in?

It's plausible that Ohtani truly had no idea Mizuhara was stealing his money, but it's fair to be skeptical as to the mechanics of such an operation. And despite the strong denials from both parties, things could get grim if it's uncovered that Ohtani himself was involved in any betting.

Though Rule 21 in the MLB rulebook doesn't explicitly prohibit gambling on other sports, it does make an exception for bets placed with illegal bookmakers. As sports betting is illegal in California, Bowyer's operation qualifies and thus opens Mizuhara and potentially Ohtani up to whatever penalty MLB commissioner Rob Manfred deemed appropriate.

Worse would be if there were bets placed on MLB games. Even if they were on games in which Ohtani had no "duty to perform," the punishment is a one-year ban. If they were on games in which he did have such a duty, it's the Rose penalty: a lifetime ban.

If any judgment is going to be rendered on Ohtani, chances are it won't come any time soon. These things take time. Enough time that the scandal could hang over Ohtani and the Dodgers for the entire season, as posited by ESPN's Jeff Passan. It's just going to be there. Looming. Casting a cloud that Ohtani and the team will just have to try to ignore.

Yet there need not be any official judgment for Ohtani's focus to come under attack from fans. Stroll through any social media site or comments section, and you'll see no shortage of people willing to buy into a narrative that Ohtani has committed baseball's original sin.

Though Dodger Stadium figures to be a safe haven, the question is how many of these people are going to show up to jeer him this season. Such treatment hasn't been the norm for Ohtani since he began his stateside career in 2018. He's used to being beloved by many and respected by all.

Will he be able to handle it? You know, being a villain?

One is inclined to think so, if for no other reason than how unbothered Ohtani seemed as he was reading his statement on Monday. It was very much on-brand for a guy who's always struck as good a balance between chill and confident as can possibly be struck.

And yet, Ohtani is also firmly in uncharted territory.

Greater scrutiny was always going to come with his move up the road from Anaheim to Los Angeles, but what he's facing now is beyond what anyone could have expected. And with Mizuhara's firing, he didn't just lose his interpreter. He's now without a guy who had been a best friend and multi-purpose go-between. An "ever-present plus-one," as ESPN's Tim Keown put it.

It's up to Ohtani to figure out how best to withstand all this, and any degree of failure is not an option. Because even if he doesn't go down as a Rose-style pariah, that doesn't necessarily preclude a dark timeline in which he's a $700 million bust at the heart of a dynasty that failed to launch.

The Evolution of Ohtani? It Could Happen.

But what if Ohtani's name is cleared? And what if he's able to keep his focus on baseball?

Well, how does a whole bunch of hitting sound?

This has been merely half his job description for the bulk of his professional career, but he won't pitch this year while he recovers from a second major elbow surgery. It's a drag, to be sure, but there's titillating evidence of what Ohtani with a one-track hitting mind could be like.

Consider these splits from his 2021-23 seasons:

• 71 G as SP and DH: .910 OPS, 19.9 AB/HR
• 377 G as DH Only: .970 OPS, 12.3 AB/HR

It was otherwise hardly by accident that Ohtani led the American League with a .412 on-base percentage and 44 home runs and all of MLB with a .654 slugging percentage in 2023. He finished with a 0.64 walk-to-strikeout ratio, compared to 0.48 for the two previous years. He also hit his balls at an average of 94.4 mph, compared to 93.2 mph for 2022 and 2023.

Spared from the burden of having to keep his legs strong for pitching, it's also possible that Ohtani will be more active on the basepaths. Even 10 extra stolen bases on top of what he achieved last year would potentially make him a 30-30 player for the first time.

It's further possible that Ohtani will log some defensive innings at a position other than pitcher. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has teased that he could see time in the outfield, where he hypothetically has a fun profile as a coverer of ground with a rocket arm.

Even as an all-bat, some-speed and no-defense hitter in 2023, Ohtani was still a top-10 position player with 6.0 wins above replacement. As such, you can imagine what he'd be capable of with even modest improvements across the board.

The October of Ohtani? It Could (Actually) Happen (This Time).

Whether by trade or divine intervention by the baseball gods on the part of the Los Angeles Angels, it felt like Ohtani would finally get to play in an MLB postseason last year.

So much for that. But this time will be different!

Not should. Will. It seems a fair leap to take, as never before has Ohtani gone into a season on a team with such good odds (the non-betting variety, mind you) to make the playoffs. So says FanGraphs:

• 2018: 27.1 percent
• 2019: 19.5 percent
• 2020: 18.7 percent*
• 2021: 39.5 percent
• 2022: 44.7 percent
• 2023: 44.7 percent
• 2024: 93.2 percent

*Pre-shortened season and expanded playoffs.

This is assuming, of course, that the banhammer doesn't fall on Ohtani. But the message here is otherwise a statement of the obvious. The Dodgers, who are 11-for-11 in making the playoffs since 2013, are as contender-y as contenders get. And that's a big reason why Ohtani is wearing Dodger Blue.

"I mean obviously I want to win championships," Ohtani said at his introductory presser in December. "And I want when people look back at the championships I won, I want people to know or think that I was a core member, and I was a big deal, or I was a big part of that championship-winning team."

Though Ohtani's next MLB postseason would be his first, he was in a similar pressure-cooker environment for the World Baseball Classic last year and had no trouble putting his stamp on Samurai Japan's dominant romp to victory. Indeed, him punching out then-Angels teammate Mike Trout to end it is one of the great baseball moments in recent memory.

This is to insinuate that the best-case scenario for Ohtani's 2024 season is as bright as the worst-case scenario is dark. The year could end with him beaming that oh-so-familiar smile of his, only this time with the Commissioner's Trophy in the same frame.

There are, of course, a wide range of outcomes between these two extremes. And to describe these, one is welcome to use any number of adjectives.

Except, that is, for boring.

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.