Shohei Ohtani has a new righthand man in Korea ... the Dodgers have appointed Will Ireton to be his interpreter -- this less than 24 hours after Ippei Mizuhara was canned due to his alleged role in a gambling scandal.
L.A. manager Dave Roberts refused to comment on the entire Mizuhara saga in a pregame meeting with reporters Thursday ... but he did confirm Ireton -- the team's manager of performance operations who previously helped Kenta Maeda with communicating -- will fill in for Ohtani's former translator for the time being.
Roberts also said Ireton would handle interpreting duties for Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
And, it didn't take long for Ireton to make his impact felt during the Dodgers' second game of the season against the Padres in Seoul. As Yamamoto struggled in his debut versus San Diego, it was Ireton who hit the mound to help relay coaches' words.
Ireton was also seen standing close by to Ohtani in the dugout throughout the game.
So far, Ohtani's looked solid despite all of the distractions surrounding him, he's currently 1-for-4 with a run and an RBI -- and he just nearly missed hitting a home run in the seventh inning.
As we previously reported, Mizuhara -- who had just worked as Ohtani's translator during the season-opener against the Pads on Wednesday -- was fired in the hours following Game 1 after Ohtani's attorneys accused him of stealing money from the two-way star in order to place bets with an alleged illegal bookmaker.
Roberts told media members he "can't say anything" regarding the matter ... but he did tell journalists Ohtani was "ready" for game action in spite of the outside noise.
L.A. is currently down 12-9.
We covered the story on the latest episode of The TMZ Podcast, available on all podcast platforms.