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Baseball star Shohei Ohtani wants his former interpreter to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of baseball cards he says were fraudulently bought using his money.

The Los Angeles Dodgers star is also requesting Ippei Mizuhara, who previously pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud for stealing nearly $17 million from the unsuspecting athlete, return signed collectible baseball cards depicting Ohtani that were in Mizuhara’s “unauthorized and wrongful possession,” according to court documents filed Tuesday.

The legal filing alleges Mizuhara accessed Ohtani’s bank account beginning around November 2021, changing his security protocols so that he could impersonate him to authorize wire transfers. By 2024, Mizuhara had used that money to buy about $325,000 worth of baseball cards at online resellers eBay and Whatnot, according to the court documents.

Mizuhara’s attorney, Michael G. Freedman, declined to comment on the filing.

Mizuhara pleaded guilty in June to spending millions from Ohtani’s Arizona bank account to cover his growing gambling bets and debts with an illegal bookmaker, as well as his own medical bills and the $325,000 worth of baseball cards.

Mizuhara is due to be sentenced in January after pleading guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return, crimes that carry a potential sentence of more than 30 years in federal prison. He also could be on the hook for restitution to Ohtani that could total nearly $17 million, as well as more than $1 million to the IRS. And as a legal permanent resident who has a green card, he might be deported to Japan.

Mizuhara stood by Ohtani’s side for many of the Japanese sensation’s career highlights, from serving as his catcher during the Home Run Derby at the 2021 All-Star Game, to being there for his two American League MVP wins and his record-shattering $700 million, 10-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Off the field, Mizuhara became Ohtani’s friend and confidant. He famously resigned from the Los Angeles Angels during the 2021 MLB lockout so he could keep speaking to Ohtani — he was rehired after a deal was struck — and their wives reportedly socialized.

But Mizuhara gambled it all away, betting tens of millions of dollars that weren’t his to wager on international soccer, the NBA, the NFL and college football — though prosecutors said he never bet on baseball.

Earlier this year, Ohtani and the Dodgers won the World Series, and the baseball star won his third Most Valuable Player award.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Brandon Crawford is retiring after 14 major league seasons, all but one of those played with his hometown San Francisco Giants as a slick-fielding shortstop and fan favorite.

A four-time Gold Glove winner and three-time All-Star, the veteran infielder announced his decision in an Instagram post Wednesday.

“During this time of the year, I am constantly being reminded of the things in my life that I am most thankful for. Baseball is one of them,” Crawford wrote. “Baseball has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, and for the rest of my life I will be thankful for the opportunities and experiences it has given me. Time is precious. I’m incredibly grateful for all the years I spent playing the game I love, but now it is time for me to spend it with the people who I’m most thankful for. Thank you to all of you who have been there for me throughout the years. It’s been an unbelievable ride.”

A fourth-round draft pick in 2008 out of UCLA, Crawford made his debut on May 27, 2011, and won World Series championships with the Giants in 2012 and ’14 — the final two titles in their every-other-year run from 2010-14.

The Giants said they will honor Crawford’s career April 26 at Oracle Park. He was a career .249 hitter with 147 home runs and 748 RBIs, but his knack for making the key defensive play is what he will long be remembered for by many.

“It was an honor to get to know Brandon as a friend and as a teammate,” new Giants President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey said in a statement. “From the first day we were both drafted in 2008 to our final year playing together in 2021, it was an honor to play alongside him for 14 years. Whether it was the clutch moments like the grand slam he hit in the 2014 wild-card game in Pittsburgh, the franchise-record, seven-hit game he recorded in Miami, or the dazzling defensive plays and acrobatic throws he made over and over again, Brandon made his mark in a way few athletes ever do.”

There was some thought Crawford might retire after the 2023 season when his contract expired in San Francisco, but he decided to give it one more year and joined the St. Louis Cardinals on a $2 million, one-year deal. He was released in August after hitting .169 with a homer and four RBIs over 80 plate appearances.

Crawford and wife Jalynne have five young children, and family will be Crawford’s primary focus going forward.

As a boy, Crawford leaned on the railing at Candlestick Park with his hat on backward supporting his beloved Giants — and eventually would star for them.

When he signed a two-year, $32 million contract in August 2021 while wrapping up a $75 million, six-year deal he had signed in November 2015, Crawford expressed his gratitude for playing in one place for so long.

“Being drafted by my hometown team and spending most of my career with them far surpassed any dream I had as a kid,” Crawford wrote in Wednesday’s post. “I definitely pretended to win a World Series in my backyard — but winning two? That was beyond my wildest dreams.”

He is the Giants’ career leader in games played at shortstop with 1,617.

“Watching Brandon play was an absolute privilege for not only me but for Giants’ fans everywhere,” President and CEO Larry Baer said.

“He was an All-Star, Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winner, a two-time World Series champion, and a Lou Gehrig and Willie Mac Award winner, that always carried himself with class, honor and respect. The Giants have been incredibly blessed to have had Brandon as part of the franchise for 16 years — really for his entire 37 years, first as a young fan, who will ever forget that indelible photo of him leaning on the railing at Candlestick Park when there was a possibility that his Giants might leave San Francisco — and as this chapter closes on his career, his legacy in the game will be celebrated by fans, teammates, and future generations of players who look up to him by the example he set.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Blake Snell has agreed to a $182 million, five-year contract with the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, according to a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday night because the deal is subject to a successful physical.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner broke the news personally by posting a photo of himself on social media in a Dodgers uniform — No. 7.

ESPN first reported the details of his contract.

Snell would join Shohei Ohtani in a star-studded rotation, giving the Dodgers the first mega deal of this offseason following Ohtani’s $700 million, 10-year contract last winter.

[Related: Track all the latest MLB free-agent signings and trades]

Earlier this month, Snell opted out of his contract with San Francisco to become a free agent for the second consecutive offseason after injuries hindered his lone year with the Giants.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Aaron Judge won’t be bothered if free agent Juan Soto gets a bigger deal from the New York Yankees than the captain’s $360 million, nine-year contract.

“It ain’t my money. I really don’t care as long as we get the best players, we get the most that we can, I’m happy with whatever,” Judge said Friday, a day after he was a unanimous winner of his second AL MVP award. “That’s never been something on my mind about who gets paid the most.”

Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers, 144 RBIs and 133 walks while hitting .322 as New York reached the World Series for the first time since 2009, only to lose to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Soto batted .288 with 41 homers, 109 RBIs and 129 walks in his first season with the Yankees and finished third in MVP voting, also trailing Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt. Jr.

A free agent at 26, Soto has met with the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers and Boston Red Sox, and he plans to meet with the Philadelphia Phillies, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the meetings have not been publicly announced.

Negotiations are not likely to intensify until after Thanksgiving.

Judge hasn’t spoken with Soto since the World Series. Judge went through the free-agent experience after hitting an AL record 62 homers in 2022.

“The best thing is to really give those guys space,” Judge said. “I talked to him all season and he knows how we feel about him and I think the most important thing is now let him do his thing with his family, pray about it, talk with people and come to the right decision for him and his family.”

Soto met with Yankees officials on Monday at a hotel in southern California, a group that included owner Hal Steinbrenner, team president Randy Levine, general manager Brian Cashman, manager Aaron Boone and senior adviser for baseball operations Omar Minaya.

“We had a good meeting. It was a very honest back-and-forth dialogue, a couple hours long,” Steinbrenner said Wednesday.

Asked how confident he was about keeping Soto, Steinbrenner said: “No idea. We’ll be in the mix. I’ll leave it at that.”

Soto and Judge filled the Nos. 2 and 3 slots in the Yankees batting order in a franchise-record 153 games, topping the 145 of Joe Dugan and Babe Ruth in 1923, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“I get to see a lot of pitches,” Judge said. “He’s going to be a tough at-bat in front of me. He’s going to wear down the pitcher right there in the first inning, within the first 15 pitches or so. Yeah, I think that was a big impact just having having a guy like that in front of you.

“If I could have eight Juan Sotos in the lineup with me, I would love that.”

After the World Series, Judge spent about a week in Tampa, Florida, where the Yankees hold spring training, and met with Steinbrenner.

“We kind of just discussed a lot of things from Juan to other guys that are kind of out there that I think could definitely help this team,:” Judge said. “So I kind of just gave my input on a couple things.”

Judge said when he agreed to his big deal in late 2022, Steinbrenner wanted to have a deeper relationship. They’ve been meeting every week or two, and pitcher Gerrit Cole has developed a similar exchange with the owner.

“I think just having that relationship to where I can kind of communicate with him about what I’m seeing, what I’m feeling, what I see with the guys, what I see against other guys that we play against,” Judge said. “I think it’s a cool part to where I think just the more communication you have from top to bottom, it just — it makes everybody better.”

Judge’s contract is baseball’s fourth largest, behind the deals of the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani ($700 million), the Los Angeles Angels‘ Mike Trout ($426.5 million) and the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts ($365 million). Judge cited the example of teammate Giancarlo Stanton, whose $325 million deal was the highest when he joined the Yankees ahead of the 2018 season but now ranks tied for ninth.

“Even though he signed one of those — the first big mega-contracts back in Miami, once he came here he didn’t care about the highest-paid guy. He just wanted good players around him,” Judge said.

In joining Mickey Mantle in 1956 as the Yankees’ only unanimous MVPs, Judge credited his teammates.

“You look at every single one of my teammates in that room and know that each and every single one of them impacted me in a way that put me in that position,” Judge said. “So it’s always going to be a team award in my book.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Shohei Ohtani is in the early stages of rehabbing from arthroscopic surgery to repair a labrum tear in his left shoulder following the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ World Series championship over the New York Yankees last month.

“We’ve already removed the stitches,” the Japanese star said Thursday in Los Angeles after winning his third Most Valuable Player award, his first with the Dodgers. “The current goal is to bring back my range of motion. Today we started working on core and we’re slowly ramping up right now.”

[Related: Shohei Ohtani wins NL MVP by unanimous vote]

Ohtani had the surgery on Nov. 5, four days after he and the team paraded through downtown Los Angeles and celebrated with fans at Dodger Stadium.

“We’ve been stuck in rehab every day and I’ve been sitting on my bed relaxing,” he said through a translator. “We haven’t been able to take some time to celebrate as a family.”

Ohtani didn’t pitch this season while rehabbing from elbow surgery in September 2023. He injured his shoulder attempting to steal second base during Game 2 of the World Series.

“The goal is to be ready for opening day that includes hitting and pitching, but we are kind of taking our time,” he said. “Obviously want to make sure I’m healthy first. We’re not going to rush anything. We’re going to take a little bit more time and be conservative.”

Ohtani’s most anxious moment during his stellar first regular season with the Dodgers didn’t involve his performance.

It was about his beloved dog, Decoy.

“The most nerve-wracking game, the most nervous I was when we had Decoy throw out the pitch,” he said.

Much like his owner, Decoy performed flawlessly on that August night, trotting from the mound to deliver the ball in his mouth to a waiting Ohtani behind the plate. Ohtani later homered leading off against Baltimore on his second bobblehead night.

They were together on Thursday, when the Dutch Kooikerhondje appeared briefly on television as Ohtani, sitting next to his wife, Mamiko Tanaka, discussed his MVP honor. He called it “very humbling.”

The 30-year-old designated hitter took all 30 of the first-place votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association, becoming the first player to win MVP honors unanimously three times. He won twice in the AL with the Los Angeles Angels.

“It’s going to motivate me more to continue to help the team win next year,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “We’d like to continue to win the World Series each year.”

Ohtani became just the second player in major league history to win the award in both leagues, joining Frank Robinson, who won NL MVP in 1961 and AL MVP in 1966.

Ohtani is likely to see a familiar face in the majors soon. Highly touted pitcher Roki Sasaki is expected to sign with a Major League Baseball team by January. He and Ohtani were teammates when Japan won the World Baseball Classic in 2023.

“No, I haven’t really been recruiting him in any way,” Ohtani said. “I consider him a friend, so we’ll talk every so often about baseball in general and life. I’ll respect his decision wherever he wants to sign and I think he’ll do well wherever he goes.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Tarik Skubal added many accolades to his name for the first time in 2024. Now, he’ll add the top pitching award to his mantle.

The Detroit Tigers ace was named the American League Cy Young Award winner for the 2024 season on Wednesday, beating finalists Seth Lugo (Kansas City Royals) and Emmanuel Clase (Cleveland Guardians) for the honor. He won all 30 first-place votes, becoming the third consecutive unanimous Cy Young winner after Gerrit Cole (New York Yankees) and Justin Verlander (Houston Astros).

Skubal, who celebrated his 28th birthday on Wednesday, had a memorable breakout year that lifted Detroit into the playoffs after a surprising late-season run. He went 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA, a 0.922 WHIP and 228 strikeouts in 192 innings pitched over 31 starts. 

Skubal’s win total, ERA and strikeout total were the most in the American League, making him (along with Chris Sale in the National League) the first pitcher to win the pitching Triple Crown in a 162-game season since former Tigers ace Verlander and the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ Clayton Kershaw did so in their respective leagues in 2011. Verlander won the Cy Young Award for his play that season as Skubal is the sixth Tigers player to ever win the award. 

After a dominant regular season, Skubal was nails in his first two postseason starts. He didn’t allow a run in either outing, shutting out the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the wild-card round before pitching seven innings of shutout ball in Game 2 of the ALDS against the Guardians. However, Skubal didn’t pitch well in the Tigers’ series-deciding loss to the Guardians, allowing five runs.

Still, Skubal’s 2024 season was as good as any pitcher’s, especially when you consider the circumstances. The lefty was out from the middle of the 2022 season through the middle of the 2023 season due to flexor tendon surgery.

As Skubal and the Tigers surprised in 2024, Wednesday’s vote wasn’t much of one. They’ll hope that’s the case moving forward, and they’ll likely have one of the game’s best pitchers for the foreseeable future to help.

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Major League Baseball will test robot umpires as part of a challenge system during spring training at 13 ballparks hosting 19 teams, which could lead to regular-season use in 2026.

MLB has been experimenting with the automated ball-strike system in the minor leagues since 2019 but is still working on the shape of the strike zone.

An agreement for big league use would have to be reached with the Major League Baseball Umpires Association, whose collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1.

“I would be interested in having it in ‘26,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday after an owners’ meeting. “We do have a collective bargaining obligation there. That’s obviously a term and condition of employment. We’re going to have to work through that issue, as well.”

Manfred said the spring training experiment will have to be evaluated before MLB determines how to move forward.

“There’s two sides to that test,” he said. “It’s what the clubs think about it and also what do the players think about it? And we’re going to have to sort through both of those.”

Triple-A ballparks used ABS this year for the second straight season, but there is little desire to call the strike zone as the cube defined in the rule book and MLB has experimented with modifications during minor league testing.

The ABS currently calls strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back. The top of the strike zone was increased to 53.5% of batter height this year from 51%, and the bottom remained at 27%.

After splitting having the robot alone for the first three games of each series and a human with a challenge system in the final three during the first 2 1/2 months of the Triple-A season, MLB on June 25 switched to an all-challenge system in which a human umpire makes nearly all decisions.

During the second half of the season, each team had three challenges in the Pacific Coast League and two in the International League. A team retains its challenge if successful, similar to the regulations for big league teams with video reviews.

“I think we will have a spring training ABS test that will provide a meaningful opportunity for all major league players to see what the challenge system will look like,” Manfred said. “It won’t be in every single ballpark but we actually have a plan where every team will get meaningful exposure.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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One of the most surprising comeback seasons in recent baseball history has been made complete with a Cy Young win.

Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale has won the National League Cy Young Award, defeating Pittsburgh Pirates rookie sensation Paul Skenes and Philadelphia Phillies star Zack Wheeler for the honor. Sale won 26 of the 30 first-place votes.

While Sale is widely thought to be one of the best pitchers of his generation, he was considered to be a longshot at best to win the Cy Young entering the season. The 35-year-old lefty was traded by the Boston Red Sox in the 2023-24 offseason to help shed salary as the oft-injured pitcher only made 31 starts in the previous three seasons.

Sale was immediately effective with the Braves and seemingly got better as the season went along. After earning his first All-Star nod in eight seasons, Sale finished 2024 with an 18-3 record, a 2.38 ERA, a 1.013 WHIP and 225 strikeouts in 177.2 innings pitched over 29 starts. Sale, along with Tarik Skubal in the American League, became the first pitcher to win the pitching Triple Crown in a 162-game season since Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw did so in 2011.

The surprise season from Sale was also much-needed for the Braves. Atlanta lost its star pitcher, Spencer Strider, for the season in April as he needed Tommy John surgery. Sale’s strong 2024 helped the Braves make the postseason again, but he wasn’t able to pitch in the playoffs due to fatigue.

Sale has also won the one major honor that’s evaded him throughout his illustrious career with Wednesday’s announcement. He had never won the American League Cy Young during his dominant seasons with the Chicago White Sox and Red Sox despite being instrumental in Boston’s 2018 World Series title run. Now, Sale has a Cy Young to go with eight All-Star nods and a World Series ring, seemingly strengthening his Hall of Fame chances. 

But before Sale’s baseball focus turns to Cooperstown, he’s still got some time left on the mound. The Braves signed him to a two-year extension shortly after acquiring him from the Red Sox last offseason, ensuring that he will stick around in Atlanta.

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