Nats’ Rizzo says Astros ‘cheated’
Count Nationals GM Mike Rizzo among those not impressed or satisfied by the Astros’ attempts to apologize for — and put behind them — their signstealing scandal.
“They cheated. They were found guilty of it. And I haven’t heard it yet,” Rizzo said Friday after the Nationals’ second formal workout at the spring training complex they share with the Astros.
“The thing that pains me the most is it puts a black cloud over the sport that I love. And that’s not right. The commissioner did an investigation and found that they cheated in 2017 and 2018. Somebody’s got to say the words over there: ‘cheated.’ And that’s important to me,” Rizzo said. “For the sport to move on, which is what I’m most concerned about, we have to make sure that all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed on this investigation before we end it.”
Rizzo’s NLchamp Nationals went into last year’s World Series prepared to deal with against-the-rules actions by the AL champ Astros before beating them in Game 7 for the title.
“I have no proof of what, if anything, they did in 2019,” Rizzo said. “We assumed they were, and we prepared diligently for it.”
World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg said the Nationals used new catcher’s signals and changed them during games, so if the Astros had been trying to steal signs in October, there wouldn’t be anything from his past outings that could be relied on.
“Regardless of if there was any funny business going on,” Strasburg said, “we controlled what we could control, we were prepared for it, and we did what was necessary to go out there and make it as even a playing field as possible.”
Rizzo and Strasburg said people from other teams reached out to the Nationals as soon as it was known their opponent in the Fall Classic would be the Astros.
“We got a lot of volunteer phone calls,” Rizzo said, “on how to beat them and how to play them.”
Noted Strasburg: “The league is a lot smaller than you think.”
Last month, Commissioner Rob Manfred punished the Astros for using a video feed to view and decode opposing catchers’ signs during the 2017 season — when the team won the championship — and again in 2018. Players banged on a trash can to signal to batters what pitch was coming, believing it would improve chances of getting a hit.
Rizzo made a point of saying the Astros “cheated to win the World Series.”
Astros manager AJ Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow were suspended by Manfred for a year and immediately fired by the club.
“I know for a fact that could not and would not happen with the Nationals, because I would not allow it to happen with the Nationals,” Rizzo said. “So we certainly take pride in that, the way we conduct our business and our process, and we try and do things the right way for the good of the game in its entirety.”
Told of the general nature of Rizzo’s comments Friday, Astros pitcher Brad Peacock said: “I don’t know how to answer that. All I know is we’re moving forward.”
But Rizzo and others noticed that the apologies of a day earlier were mostly rather vague.
Asked whether what his team did was cheating, Astros owner Jim Crane answered: “We broke the rules and you can phrase that any way you want.”
Extra innings: Indians RHP Mike Clevinger had left knee surgery after an injury during a spring training workout, the Akron Beacon Journal reported, and is expected to miss several weeks. The 29-year-old missed time last season with a back injury, but went 13-4 with a 2.71 ERAin 21 starts. ... Closer Josh Hader lost his salary arbitration case against the Brewers, and will earn $4.1 million rather than his $6.4 million request. The 25-year-old lefty collected 37 saves in 44 chances and went 3-5 with a 2.62 ERA during his second straight All-Star season in 2019. ... MLB is raising the minimum salary for minor league players in 2021. Players at rookie and shortseason levels will see their minimum weekly pay rise from $290 to $400, and players at Class A will go from $290 to $500. Double-A will jump from $350 to $600 and Triple-A from $502 to $700.