Former Astros outfielder Carlos Beltrán spoke publicly for the first time about his role in Houston’s infamous sign-stealing scandal, admitting that the team was wrong for carrying out its scheme.
Beltrán, now an analyst for the YES Network, spoke as a guest on CenterStage with Michael Kay and discussed how nobody in the organization stepped up to stop the illegal activity.
“A lot of people always ask me why you didn’t stop it,” Beltrán said, per a YES Network transcript of the program viewed by The Athletic. “And my answer is, I didn’t stop it the same way no one stopped it. This is working for us. Why you gonna stop something that is working for you? So, if the organization would’ve said something to us, we would’ve stopped it for sure.”
Beltrán was one of the people who helped come up with the team’s sign-stealing plan, which connected a camera in center field to a video screen located in the tunnel near the Houston dugout. Players and staff would signal pitches to batters in real time by banging a trashcan with a bat.
After commissioner Rob Manfred sent a letter to all teams saying that the league office would take a more serious approach to electronic sign-stealing, Beltrán said the Astros front office had no communication on the issue with the players.
“Well, if [the Astros front office] got the letter, they knew, but they never shared it with us,” Beltrán said. “Nobody said anything to us, you know, nobody said anything. I wish somebody would’ve said something.”
After an investigation into the matter by The Athletic in 2019, Beltrán said that the team did not use electronic methods to steal signs, which was later proven false. Beltrán was hired to be the Mets manager in November, but lost his job two months later after his role in the scandal became known.
Former Astros and current Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, Red Sox manager Alex Cora and Astros president Jeff Luhnow all lost their jobs as well.
Beltrán said that, at the time, he and the rest of the team didn’t believe they were crossing a line with their methods. He also expressed frustration that he was the only Astros player to be named in MLB’s report after the league concluded its investigation into the matter.
“The part that bothered me about that is that, you know, when I sit down to cooperate with them [MLB], they said to me, ‘We’re not going against the players. We’re going against … field personnel, front office and organization,’” Beltrán said. “And the fact that I’m the only player named in that report? That’s the part that I don’t understand. Everyone gets immunity except Carlos Beltrán? I don’t get it.”
