A few months ago, an executive of the Seattle Mariners was fired for making similar comments about a player.
There’s a great clip of Ohtani going up to his idol, Ichiro, the other day when the Angels were in Seattle.
He’s just a joy to watch, always has a smile, and shows respect.
I heard some of his remarks. I don’t know if they were racist - but sure stupid. They were a losing team at the time and the last thing on his list should be their speaking abilities to the press. (His comments were related to press meetings, not training or understanding coaches, etc.)
IIRC Ichiro rarely spoke English at a press conference and used a translater.