"I am impressed you can speak of Ohtani with such certainty, when his public exposure has been so shielded"
I agree with this. How anybody can have a meaningful opinion about somebody they have never met, have never heard speak (excepting those who understand Japanese), and whose personal life is essentially unknown, seems odd.
I have no reason to doubt Ohtani's version of events, but I would point out that we have two versions of events: One that existed before the lawyers got involved and one that emerged after the lawyers got involved. The first one implicated Ohtani in a crime that baseball might not be able to ignore. The second one didn't.
It is also plausible that the cooperation of the interpreter in any scenario preferred by the lawyers could easily be purchased for a lot less than $700M. If this was an NBA player accused of an impropriety and a witness changed their story in a way that exonerated the player, would anybody doubt the witness had been "bought off"?
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