Mendoza: Fiers should have gone to MLB, not media
ESPN analyst walks back comments blasting player who told on the Astros
ESPN analyst Jessica Mendoza says pitcher Mike Fiers should have gone to Major League Baseball before he told a journalist about his allegation the Houston Astros had been using a camera to steal signs.
Mendoza, a New York Mets adviser in addition to her media job, said Thursday on ESPN’s “Golic and Wingo” that Fiers should have kept the information confined to teammates and the league. The right-hander spent 2½ seasons with the Astros, including their 2017 championship season. He signed with Detroit in 2018 and was traded to Oakland — Houston’s AL West rival — later that season.
“Going public, yeah. I get it, if you’re with the Oakland A’s and you’re on another team, heck yeah you better be telling your teammates, ‘Heads up, if you hear some noises while you’re pitching, like, this is what’s going on.’ For sure. But to go public, yeah, it didn’t sit well with me,” Mendoza said on the broadcast. “Honestly, it made me sad for the sport that that’s how this all got found out.
“This wasn’t something MLB naturally investigated or that even other teams complained about because they naturally heard about it and investigations happened,” she added. “But it came from within. It was a player that was a part of it, that benefited from it during the regular season when he was a part of that team. That, when I first heard about it, it hits you like any teammate would. It’s something that you don’t do. I totally get telling your future teammates, helping them win, letting people know, but to go public with it and call them out and start all of this, it’s hard to swallow.”
Fiers went public in a report last November by The Athletic. That prompted baseball’s investigation, leading to one-season suspensions for Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch, who were fired
Monday. Boston manager Alex Cora and Mets manager Carlos Beltrán also lost their jobs — Cora was Houston’s bench coach in 2017 and Beltrán a player. MLB’s investigation implicated both.
Mendoza tried to clarify her remarks in a statement posted to Twitter later Thursday, saying baseball will benefit from the sign stealing being uncovered and that appropriate action was taken.
“The point I should have been much more clear on was this: I believe it’s very critical that this news was made public; I simply disagree with the manner in which that was done,” Mendoza said in the statement. “I credit Mike Fiers for stepping forward, yet I feel that going directly through your team and/or MLB first could have been a better way to surface the information. Reasonable minds can disagree.”
MLB Network radio analyst CJ Nitkowski took an opposite view.
“Mike Fiers could have easily done this anonymously, then it only would have been a column and likely ended there because good reporters don’t give up sources. He put his name on it and the game is better today because of it. He’s not a target, he’s to be commended,” Nitkowski wrote on Twitter.
GIANTS: Alyssa Nakken, 29, became the first female coach on a major league staff in baseball history Thursday when she was named an assistant under new Giants manager Gabe Kapler.
Major League Baseball confirmed Nakken is the first woman coach in the majors. Rachel Balkovec, who was a catcher on the softball teams at Creighton and New Mexico, was hired last fall by the New York Yankees to be a minor league hitting coach.
Nakken is a former softball standout at first base for Sacramento State. Kapler said she will be working with Giants players on base running. She will throw batting practice. She will work with all the coaches on the technical aspects of the game.
Of significance: Kapler said Nakken will be in uniform, donning the Giants familiar black and orange. She won’t be in the dugout during games because teams are restricted to seven coaches there during games.