ESPN’S MENDOZA: FIERS SHOULD HAVE GONE TO MLB, NOT REPORTER

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 2 1/2 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.