The LA Times criticizes the way the Dodgers and MLB handled the Shohei Ohtani betting scandal. The big complaint is that they farmed out the crisis to Ohtani’s agent and a PR firm instead of the club taking control. I agree that the PR firm hired was not a good choice:
The league had encountered Balelo and Hiltzik in tough times before. They represented Ryan Braun when the Milwaukee Brewers outfielder was fighting allegations of testing positive for a prohibited level of testosterone in 2011. Braun appealed the finding and suggested that the man who collected the testing specimen might have mishandled it. He won the appeal and publicly thanked Balelo and Hiltzik for their support.
Later, however, Braun’s name appeared in the records of a clinic that dispensed performance-enhancing drugs and the player admitted to a “huge mistake” in using a “banned substance.” He apologized to the specimen collector and accepted a lengthy suspension.
LATimes.com
Although it’s not mentioned in the article, I wonder if the outside handling of cases like this protects the teams and league from grievances from the MLBPA? The other thing is that MLB and the Dodgers should not be seen as interfering in a federal investigation. I do agree with Scott Boras on this point:
“I would have never allowed the interpreter go to the press,” Boras said. “Why would I trust anything he says? I would have had him arrested on the spot.”
I’m not sure there were any easy decisions here.