LOS ANGELES — This should be a banner week for Shohei Ohtani, baseball's truly global superstar.
This is the week the American League most valuable player and Cy Young awards are announced; Ohtani finished fourth in Cy Young voting and is a finalist for MVP. On Thursday, Ohtani declared that he would participate in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, joining Angels teammate Mike Trout as high-profile entrants in an event too many of baseball's best players have skipped in previous years.
Alas, this also is the week Ohtani was named as a defendant, one of eight sports stars sued in a class-action lawsuit against FTX, the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange.