The Houston Astros have been under scrutiny for years following their sign-stealing scandal, and they remain a popular topic among MLB fans.
The Houston Astros have been the face of controversy for several years after being accused of stealing signs at the World Series. Despite the scandal happening years ago, news still continuously comes out about the Astros cheating. The situation impacted MLB, fan experience and players alike and many people are hesitant to trust the Astros.
The attention on the Astros, however, hasnāt been completely negative. Some players stood up for the team. Each player seems to share a similar idea that the Astros arenāt the only team in the league to steal signs, they are just the first team to get caught. Who are the players who defended the Astros?
10. Chris Sale
Chris Sale is a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and is currently under management of Alex Cora, the former Astros bench coach who is partly under blame for the scandal. Sale seems to want to take the Astros situation as a lesson and move on from it rather than continue to drag it out for years.
"āIf the Astros were the only team doing it,Ā then yeah, give (the championship) back ā take it back.Ā I know for a fact they werenāt. All these people pointing fingers: Well, hey, take a check in the mirror real quick. Make sure that you and your team werenāt doing something. What (the Astros) did was wrong. And Iām not trying to condone it. Shoot, weāre talking five years ago now and weāre still talking about this stuff. Iād like to kind of turn the page on it. It happened. They dealt with it. Thereās nothing you can do about it now sitting here where we are. So you just kind of move on from it.ā ā Chris Sale, via Houston Chronicle"
Sale has been in MLB since 2010 and has consistently been one of the leading players for the Red Sox. Though he has faced injury often, he remains a reliable and powerful player when healthy.