Correa: Probe doesn’t taint 2017 crown
SS offers no details on his interview with MLB in regard to sign-stealing
Allegations of electronic sign-stealing “surprised” Astros shortstop Carlos Correa, who acknowledged Saturday he has participated in and cooperated with Major League Baseball’s ongoing investigation into his team.
Appearing at an autograph show alongside Alex Bregman and George Springer, Correa offered the most elaborate comments of any Houston player since the scandal broke last November.
Correa expressed little worry about the organization’s reputation and no thought the 2017 World Series title is in any way tainted. He revealed subtle antipathy toward former teammate Mike Fiers, whose on-the-record allegations about the 2017 team’s actions spurred the investigation.
“He’s a grown man, and he can do whatever he wants to do. It’s a free country,” Correa said. “Knowing Fiers, it was surprising, because we were a team. We were a team. We were all together, and we had a bond, and we won a World Series championship. But this is America, the land of the free. You can say what you want to say.”
No member of the organization has downright denied the allegations in the ensuing two months. General manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch did not answer numerous inquiries at the winter meetings last month. Hinch promised “there will be a day when I get to address it, I assure you.”
“It was pretty surprising to wake up to that news (in November),” Correa said of the allegations. “I cooperated with MLB, like we’ve all been doing so we can put an end to all of this and all this talk and move forward.”
Former Astro J.D. Davis, now a New York Met, told reporters in New York last month he was unaware of any wrongdoing. Pirates righthander Joe Musgrove, in town Saturday to participate in the autograph show, echoed Davis’ sentiment.
“I was in the bullpen for the whole postseason — whole second half of the season, really. I was worried about my job. I wasn’t even in the dugout for any of that stuff,” said Musgrove, who threw 1091⁄3 innings for the 2017 Astros.
“Everyone is going to have thoughts on stuff regardless. Everyone always accuses people of something. That stuff goes around the league all the time. Everyone is trying to get an advantage somewhere.”
Bregman declined comment on all questions surrounding sign-stealing on Saturday. Through his representatives on site, Springer declined an interview request. Correa, meanwhile, spoke for five minutes while speedily signing large posters with an orange marker.
Fiers, now a member of the Oakland A’s, told the Athletic that during the 2017 season, Houston used a center-field camera to steal signs electronically at Minute Maid Park. To signal the coming pitch, Fiers said, those in the Houston dugout would bang on a trash can in a coordinated system.
Asked directly if those actions occurred, Correa did not answer.
“I cooperated with MLB, and that’s something we can’t discuss anymore once we talk to MLB. That’s the end of it,” he said.
The Chronicle reported in November that before the 2019 season, Major League Baseball instructed newly installed clubhouse volunteers — called video monitors — to listen for banging sounds inside the Astros dugout at Minute Maid Park. Video monitors were present throughout the majors last season — MLB’s latest effort to combat rampant rumors of electronic sign-stealing.
“This year, it was obvious in doing the investigation we found out. We were just playing baseball. We got to the World Series and lost the last game. We weren’t able to accomplish our goal, but we won, what, 107 games,” Correa said. “There was nothing going on, just straight up good players playing baseball. We had a better regular season than in ‘17 but fell one game short of winning the World Series again.”
Last month, commissioner Rob Manfred called the investigation — one containing more than 60 witness interviews and 76,000 reviewed emails — the “most thorough” ever conducted by his office. A timetable for its results and potential discipline is unclear, though Manfred has said he’d like it resolved prior to spring training. Astros pitchers and catchers report to West Palm Beach, Fla., in five weeks.
Musgrove, who was traded to the Pirates following the 2017 season as part of the Gerrit Cole deal, said Saturday was the first time he’d discussed the Astros’ allegations since they broke. The league did not interview him, he said.
“I don’t think that taints (anything),” Musgrove said. “I was in that clubhouse, and I watched how hard we worked every day. I watched the preparation we put in to study hitters and find out where they were tipping their pitches and whatnot. That’s all the stuff no one accounts for. Everyone hears that we cheated, and they hear that there was the whole trash can deal going on, but no one sees the work that we were putting in every day to prepare ourselves and give ourselves an advantage.”