Shohei Ohtani has made headlines over the last week for something other than his once-in-a-lifetime abilities on the baseball field. A recent piece by ESPN indicated that the Los Angeles Dodgers fired Ohtani’s longtime interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, after it was discovered that at least $4.5 million made its way from Ohtani’s bank account to a bookmaker in California, one of the few remaining states where gambling remains illegal.

On Monday, Ohtani finally spoke to the media regarding the saga, as he read a prepared statement but did not take questions from the media.