Nick Markakis believes Astros need ‘a beating’ for their cheating

Atlanta Braves outfielder Nick Markakis holds nothing back on how he feels about the Houston Astros scandal. He thinks their players need “a beating.”

The Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal has set the baseball world ablaze and lit a fire under opposing players as they report for spring training.

For a sport as reserved and entrenched in tradition as baseball, it’s been interesting to see some of MLB’s quietest players speak on how they feel about the Astros getting away with cheating, especially after MLB commissioner Rob Manfred let them off easy. It even has the stoic outfielder Nick Markakis of the Atlanta Braves visibly frustrated about how the whole thing went down.

Wait, what? Nick Markakis willingly went after the Astros players for their roles in the sign-stealing scandal? Yes, this did happened. Along with Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels, who also went off on the Astros, Markakis is arguably one of the most soft-spoken players in baseball.

That didn’t stop the 2018 MLB All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner from saying the Astros players “need a beating.”

Markakis is no spring chicken. He will be playing his 15th big league season at 36-years-old this year. The Woodstock, GA. native is entering his sixth season with his hometown team after spending nine years with the Baltimore Orioles.

For the last 14 years, Markakis has quietly amassed a ton of hits and playing in relative baseball obscurity. He has 2,355 hits in 2,117 games with a career .288 batting average. As steady as they come, Markakis has been one of the most consistent outfielders in baseball for the better part of two decades.

However, playoff success has largely avoided him, making it to postseason only three times. The only postseason series victory he has experienced was in the 2014 ALDS over the Angels. One has to think him seeing a team cheat all the way to a World Series title is very upsetting to him. His reaction was out of character, but totally understandable, given his personal postseason futility.

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This Astros’ sign-stealing scandal is the biggest black eye on baseball since the steroid era. All 29 other clubs are furious about what the Astros did to win it all in 2017. For a player as mild-mannered as Markakis to get this riled up over it, you know how the most respected players in baseball feel about this horrendous scandal. It has undeniably compromised baseball’s integrity.