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Carlos Beltran on Astros' Cheating: 'We Did Cross the Line' and 'We Were Wrong'
April 3, 2022
Former Houston Astros outfielder Carlos Beltran spoke out about the team's cheating scandal from their championship season in 2017.
In an interview with YES Network's Michael Kay on Centerstage that will air in full on Monday (h/t Pete Caldera of NorthJersey.com), Beltran said "we did cross the line" when asked about the level of cheating the Astros engaged in.
"We all did what we did," he added. "Looking back today, we were wrong. I wish I would've asked more questions about what we were doing."
Even though Beltran attempted to express remorse about the situation, some of his comments suggest he's also trying to deflect his own responsibility for the scheme.
Per MLB's official investigation report (h/t Edward Sutelan of Sporting News), Beltran was one of several players on the 2017 Astros who devised a plan to help improve the efficacy of the sign-stealing operation.
The system involved Houston employees using video footage from a camera set up in center field to decode the signs of opposing teams and relay it to players on the field.
Beltran was one of the Astros players who came up with the idea to have someone bang on a trash can to relay to the hitter what the opposing pitcher was going to throw.
During the interview with Kay, Beltran said he wanted someone in the organization to tell them to stop doing it.
"I wish the organization would've said to us, 'Hey, man, what you guys are doing, we need to stop this,'" he said.
Beltran went on to say he didn't think the system worked in every game, and they "had such a good team" anyway.
The fallout from the scandal resulted in the Astros being fined $5 million and forfeiting first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021. General manager Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch were suspended for the 2020 season.
Houston owner Jim Crane subsequently fired Luhnow and Hinch. Alex Cora, who was a bench coach on the Astros in 2017 and implicated in the scheme, agreed to a mutual parting of ways as manager of the Boston Red Sox.
The Red Sox had to forfeit their second-round pick in the 2020 MLB draft after Commissioner Rob Manfred found evidence of sign-stealing by the team during their championship season in 2018, but the scale of their scheme was significantly lower than what Houston was found to have done.
Cora was also suspended for the rest of the 2020 season. He was re-hired as manager of the Red Sox in November 2020.
Beltran had been hired as manager of the New York Mets in November 2019. He parted ways with the team two months later after the results of MLB's investigation were announced.
The New York Yankees, who lost to the Astros in the 2017 ALCS, hired Beltran in January to serve as a game analyst for the YES Network. He is going to call 36 games for the team during the 2022 season.