"I'm telling you," Roberts told reporters, "this guy is as selfless as a person as you're gonna find."

Ireton, 35, was born in Tokyo to a Japanese American father and Spanish Filipina mother. He came to the United States at age 15 and later was an infielder at Occidental College and Menlo College. He was also the latter school's valedictorian for the class of 2012.

That same year he played for the Philippines national team in qualifiers for the World Baseball Classic, which led to a tryout with a Texas Rangers minor league affiliate. He didn't make the team, but Ireton received an internship with the Rangers organization that allowed him to continue working in the sport he loved.

He then worked as an intern with the New York Yankees organization and briefly returned to Japan before landing the gig as Maeda's translator in 2016. A Backstage Dodgers video feature that season described Ireton as the "26th man on the 25-man roster, there to lift their spirits," and added that the job title of interpreter "only begins to describe what he does for the team."

Allowed to take part in certain drills during spring training, Ireton was dubbed "Will the Thrill" by Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman because of the effort he exerted during that time in the field.

"He is a thrill," Dodgers utility player Kiké Hernandez told Backstage Dodgers in 2016. "It is a thrill to watch him every day. Not only is he the best translator in the league, but he's also the best shagger on the team."

Then-Dodgers infielder Justin Turner added of Ireton: "Everything he does is the max. He's out there power shagging, trying to make plays and slide catches. It's been fun to have him on the team."

Ireton also was known to whip the team into a frenzy with his dugout dance moves, on at least one occasion by apparently lifting 405 pounds in a high-energy performance Maeda dubbed "Will's Deadlift Challenge" in a pair of 2017 Instagram videos.

"When we first met Will, he was sort of laid back, a little bit shy and reserved," Dodgers executive vice president and chief marketing officer Lon Rosen said in the same Backstage Dodgers feature. "But very quickly we got to see the real Will — Will the dancing machine."

After Maeda was traded to the Minnesota Twins prior to the 2020 season, Ireton remained with the Dodgers organization. He spent a year as a player development coach for the triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City before returning to the big league club as performance operations manager.

Taking part in a panel discussion at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles last fall, Ireton said his job "in a nutshell basically is to be a touch point for every department" and sometimes requires 12-hour workdays during the season.

"I make sure that everything that the coaches and players need for that day, whether that be scouting materials or information from analytics to information we get from video — everything that the coaches and players need, I provide or make sure that I provide for them in a timely manner," said Ireton, who added that he also plays a role in the scouting department.

Roberts, whose mother is Japanese and father is Black, took part in the same panel discussion.

"There's always players coming from Japan and so he always liaises on stuff like that ... and we count on him for a lot of things," Roberts said. "He's like a hired gun, so whether it's the minor leagues, a potential draftee, a potential trade or stuff that internally for that night's game or kind of looking or projecting down the road and establishing, you know, building on relationships that we have in Japan, he's the point person for the Dodgers."

Putting it more succinctly, Roberts said of Ireton: "He does everything for the Dodgers, believe me."

Months later, those words ring true more than ever.

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