‘IT JUST STINKS’
Reddick breaks the silence but doesn’t delve into specifics of MLB case
A stark silence ended Thursday. A player who witnessed the Astros’ electronic sign-stealing scheme finally spoke. Josh Reddick offered scant specifics. Afforded the opportunity, the outfielder did not signal any regret.
The scandal has cost four men their jobs, called into question the legitimacy of the 2017 World Series championship, and thrown the Astros into immediate upheaval.
“It just stinks,” Reddick said. “It stinks for everybody involved.”
Before Reddick’s appearance at a team-sponsored fan event Thursday at Saint Arnold Brewery, none of the men who comprised the 2017 Astros had been made available to speak. The Chronicle efforted reaction from several after the report was released Monday. None responded.
“I just think it will get addressed when the time is right,” Reddick said. “When everyone feels the time is right, it will get taken care of.”
The quiet only invites more speculation.
Social media was set ablaze Thursday with unfounded allegations that the Astros wore buzzing devices under their uniforms in 2019 — a season that Major League Baseball’s investigation concluded had “no violations” of electronic sign-stealing.
Jose Altuve’s unusual pronounced insistence that teammates not rip off his jersey after his pennant-clinching home run against the Yankees inflamed the theories.
A postgame photo of Reddick began to circulate, too. The quirky outfielder was donned in an orange wrestling singlet with goggles to shield his eyes from champagne. Something unusual stuck to his left shoulder. “That’s confetti,” Reddick said. In a statement released to The Chronicle on Thursday, Major League Baseball said it “explored wearable devices” during its investigation into the Astros’ signstealing schemes but found “no evidence to substantiate it.”
“It gets ridiculous,” Reddick of the rampant rumors about the Astros and their practices. “That’s all I’ll say.”
Reddick said little else. A team spokesman warned the group of assembled media beforehand that the outfielder would not comment on Major League Baseball’s nine-page findings. Most of his five-minute interview nevertheless centered around it.
Reddick said he had not read commissioner Rob Manfred’s nine-page report on the investigation, one that promised no punishment for Astros players because it was “both difficult and impractical.”
Carlos Beltran, a designated hitter on the 2017 team and the only player named in the report, was nevertheless ousted as manager of the New York Mets on Thursday, a day after former Astros bench coach Alex Cora, also named in the report, saw the end of his tenure as skipper of the Boston Red Sox.
Reddick said he had not yet reached out to manager A.J. Hinch or general manager Jeff Luhnow, both of whom were fired for their inaction in the face of cheating. The 2020 team had not yet discussed the findings, either.
“I think that’s something we’ll figure out once it gets closer to spring training,” Reddick said. “I think we’re all still gathering our minds around it right now.”
Questions will not cease. The team’s annual FanFest is still scheduled for Saturday at Minute Maid Park. Altuve and Alex Bregman are among the players scheduled to attend. They were members of the 2017 team who could have benefited from the signstealing scheme, one Hinch disapproved of but did nothing to stop. Now he and Luhnow are unemployed.
Any regrets from 2017? “We’re not talking much about it,” Reddick said.