Houston Astros hope to ‘regain the trust’ after apologizing for sign-stealing scandal
They took their turns, one by one, finally addressing Major League Baseball’s biggest story from the offseason.
Whether they are viewed as genuine or hollow platitudes will be determined in time.
Houston Astros owner Jim Crane, manager Dusty Baker, third baseman Alex Bregman and second baseman Jose Altuve each delivered statements Thursday morning outside the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach to address and apologize for the electronic sign-stealing scandal during their 2017 World Series run. It was the team’s first public comments this spring.
MLB, after an investigation led by the commissioner’s office, found the Astros to have used a live camera in center field and dugout monitors to steal signs in real time. Those signs were relayed to batters. The investigation also found the Astros used the system for at least part of the 2018 season.
In response, MLB suspended Astros executive Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch for the 2020 season. Crane ultimately fired both shortly after the punishment was handed down. Houston was also fined $5 million and lost its first- and second-round picks for both the 2020 and 2021 MLB Drafts.
“I am really sorry about the choices that were made by my team by the organization and by me,” Bregman told reporters. “I have learned from this and I hope to regain the trust of baseball fans. I would also like to thank the Astros fans for all of their support. We as a team are totally focused on moving forward to the 2020 season. Thank you.”
Altuve added a similar response: “I want to say that the whole Astros organization and the team feels bad about what happened in 2017. We especially feel remorse for the impact on the fans and the game of baseball, and our team is determined to move forward, to play with intensity and to bring back a championship to Houston in 2020.”
The whole Astros team met in West Palm Beach on Wednesday, as ESPN first reported.
“At that meeting last night, the players showed tremendous remorse, sorrow and embarrassment for their families, organization, city of Houston and baseball,” Baker said. “I want to ask for the baseball world to forgive them for the mistakes they made.”
Crane reiterated similar expressions, noting “again how sorry our team is for what happened,” that “this will never happen again on my watch” and said he does not believe players should be punished because “leaders enabled, condoned and did not stop actions that happened.”
Crane would not, however, go as far as to say the team cheated.
“We broke the rules,” Crane said. “You can phrase that any way you want.”
Meanwhile, about 20 minutes away at the Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium complex in Jupiter, Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly referred to the scandal as “a black eye to baseball.”
“It’s something you want to stop,” Mattingly said. “The commissioner’s office did a thorough investigation. It’s something serious, and it was handled in a serious way. Hopefully, we can move forward from here and it doesn’t happen again.”
This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 2:01 PM.
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