The MLB opening day is not until March 26, but that does mean baseball will stay out of the news. According to a report by the commissioner Rob Manfred, the Houston Astros were stealing signs of other teams in the league.
Houston is not the only team caught up in this; the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets had to make changes to their front office based on employees connected to the scandal. Four people have lost jobs: Houston General Manager Jeff Luhnow, and manager A.J. Hinch; Boston manager Alex Cora, who was the bench coach in Houston in 2017 when they won the World Series; and new New York Mets manager Carlos Beltran.
In a statement about letting his manager go, Mets owner Jeff Wilpon said, “It became clear to all parties that it was in anyone’s best interest for Carlos to move forward with the New York Mets.”
I believe all of this had to be done; if you cheat in any way, you should lose your job. Especially for Luhnow, Hinch, and Cora — they all won the World Series when they cheated, and Cora also did it in Boston, so they cannot go on as manager.
All of this came to light when former Astros and current Oakland Athletics pitcher Mike Fiers told the Athletic about the cheating in an article.
“They were advanced and willing to go above and beyond to win,” is part of what Fiers said.
In another article from Business Insider, Danny Farquhar — who pitches in the minors for the Chicago White Sox — stated “There was a banging from the dugout, almost like a bat hitting the bat rack every time a change-up signal got put down. After the third one, I stepped off. I was throwing some really good changeups and they were getting fouled off.”
There are significant improvements evident when looking at the Astros stats from 2016 to 2017. The year the cheating took place there are some jumps. For example, they hit 198 home runs in 2016 compared to 238 in 2017, 689 RBI to 854, and Jose Altuve won MVP.
The only team so far to be punished is Houston according to an article from ESPN.com; they were fined $5 million, the maximum they can be fined, and lost first and second round draft picks for 2021 and 2022.
In my opinion, Houston got what they deserved, but the players need to step up and say what they did. Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman are the stars of the team, and if they did cheat they should say what they did. Not only did they win a championship and MVP due to cheating, but their actions have led to four people losing their jobs. Not only that, one was a teammate, a brother they played with for a year. That is unfair to Beltran that he is the only player named.
Sports and cheating are nothing new, from spygate in the NFL, and the steroid era in baseball. It is important that the investigation is handled right to solve the problem and that it does not happen again.
Colby Sherwin
Sports Editor 