Kansas City Royals: Carlos Beltran associated with sign stealing scandal
By Travis Neely
Former Kansas City Royals outfielder and new Mets manager Carlos Beltran is linked to the Astros’ sign stealing.
Unless you have totally tuned out Major League Baseball for the winter, you can’t help but be caught up in all the accusations of the Houston Astros stealing signs during their 2017 Championship Season. What has turned interesting is that several individuals, including former Kansas City Royals outfielder Carlos Beltran, have now been dragged into the investigation.
The investigation was ignited when former Houston Astros (Now Oakland A’s pitcher) Mike Fiers explained exactly how the team did it to Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic.
The details and evidence are very clear. The Astros had a center field camera that was focused on the visiting team’s catcher. The video was monitored in the hallway between the dugout and the clubhouse. Someone in the hallway clearly banged on a garbage can to immediately let the batter know what pitch was being delivered.
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Carlos Beltran was a bench player on that 2017 Astros team and has denied that signs were stolen using electronic devices. Beltran could easily be one of players on the team who was either banging on a trash can or was figuring out the signs.
What is shocking is not that Beltran is part of the investigation, but rather that MLB and other teams just now figured this out and that Mike Fiers even is bringing it up. With all the TV coverage to include a natural center field camera, it’s hard to believe that Astros would even try to hide an extra camera out there.
How did the league not see someone like Beltran beating on a garbage can? It’s surprising that every team in MLB didn’t clue in on this either and use some sort of deception or even simply change how signs were delivered to the mound to dupe the Astros.
It is assumed that the Astros were only able to pull this off during home games during the 2017 season. During that year they had a record of 48 wins and 33 losses at home.
It’s worth looking at how Mike Fiers’ pitched at home during the 2017 season. According to baseball reference, Fiers pitched in 15 games at home during that season, giving up 45 earned runs and compiling a 4-8 record. The Astros averaged barely over four runs and were 8-7 in his home starts. Ironically they scored two fewer runs in five of those games (shutout twice).
It is clear that either Fiers never benefited from stealing signs or the team obviously didn’t do it to get him any runs. That would be a great reason for Fiers to whistle-blow and let the baseball world know the Astros cheated.
The integrity of the game was indeed tainted over this, but really the outcome of the 2017 season really wasn’t impacted. Yes there will be the individuals who claim it cost some younger pitchers of opposing teams the opportunity to stay in the league longer. This sort of behavior doesn’t warrant a harsh punishment.
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It is also worth noting the Kansas City Royals won the three game series in Houston two games to one. Obviously the garbage can wasn’t hit on hard enough in those games.