Although 2017 seems like a long time ago, a baseball event from that time has recently taken on a lot of relevance: the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.
This comes after a controversial statement by Ben Verlander, sports analyst and brother of pitcher Justin Verlander, who in a series of social media posts, defended Jose Altuve, a key figure in that team, denying that he participated in the cheating system that marked the Astros’ championship run
“He didn’t cheat,”Verlander wrote on his X account, after Altuve had an outstanding offensive performance against the Dodgers, the team that lost the 2017 World Series to Houston.
The comment caused a stir, not only for contradicting the findings confirmed by MLB, but also for dismissing the outrage that still lingers among much of the fans and the professional baseball environment.
Ben Verlander refuses to see evidence of Astros’ sign-stealing
Ben Verlander’s stance flies in the face of a mountain of evidence: documents, official investigations and even testimony from former Astros players such as Evan Gattis.
All of this confirms that the team used a sign-stealing system based on video analysis and banging on a trash can to alert hitters to opposing pitches, and even Alex Cora, a former bench coach, reportedly admitted that they knew the pitches before the hitter got to base:
“We knew the Astros cheated,” a Red Sox player said, according to a book about the 2017 season in Houston, “because Alex Cora told us. He said that when they played against the Dodgers, ‘We already knew what everyone was throwing before we even got on base. We didn’t have to get on base.'”
In addition, statistics also show that 2017 was the best offensive year of Altuve’s career, as he led with a .346 batting average, a .547 slugging percentage and 7.7 wins above replacement (WAR), according to Fangraphs. These numbers have been cited as evidence of the impact the cheating system may have had on his performance.
Ben Verlander accuses Dodgers of cheating
Despite his claim, Verlander went further and accused the Dodgers of having done the same: “They cheated too. They should have done better,” he said, without providing evidence. MLB investigated several teams, including the Dodgers, and found no evidence linking the Los Angeles organization to a similar system to that of the Astros
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