Cashman: Crane’s comments a deflection of Astros’ cheating past

CHICAGO — Brian Cashman isn’t taking advice from Jim Crane.

The Yankees general manager said Crane, the Astros owner, was deflecting when he made comments to USA Today that he should be quiet about the Astros’ cheating scandal being what has kept New York from a World Series.

“I don’t think anybody’s gonna dance to the tune he’s singing, to be quite honest,” Cashman said Thursday night before the Yankees took on the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.

“I’d say it’s called deflection, and him trying to equate probably an equivalent of a parking ticket to maybe 162 felonies. I don’t think anybody’s gonna buy into any of that stuff.”

Crane was responding to Cashman’s comments in spring training that the Astros’ cheating scandal — which cost the team $5 million, years of draft picks and their GM and manager — cost the Yankees a chance at a World Series appearance in 2017.

Crane also talked about “The

Yankee Letter,” which revealed the club was fined $100,000 for illegal use of its replay room in 2015 and 2016, before the rules for which the Astros were punished in 2017 were explicitly laid out by the league.

“I found his comments to be extremely strange,’’ Crane told Bob Nightengale in an interview. “There’s the letter, and you were doing it too. You were there dude. What are you talking about?

“If I was one of the teams, and I knew our team was doing it [cheating], I’d keep my mouth shut and just go about our business. But listen, I can only control what’s going on here.

“I can’t control what the other guys do.’’

The Astros were caught using the replay room to steal signs and relay them to batters in real time during the 2017 season.

Sitting on the hot hand: After driving in all five of the Yankees runs on Wednesday, Gleyber Torres was on the bench to start the series with the White Sox on Thursday.

Boone said it was one of the days he had planned to give the second baseman off.