Fiers’ continued silence leaves Correa waiting for an apology
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Since he blew the whistle on Houston’s electronic sign-stealing scheme and spurred Major League Baseball’s investigation into the Astros, A’s pitcher Mike Fiers has toiled in relative silence, granting a few interviews but refusing to discuss the decision to go public or the trash can banging system in detail.
The silence irks Astros shortstop Carlos Correa, who on Saturday implored Fiers to apologize for tolerating the sign-stealing during the 2017 season.
“Did you see the smile that he had when he got that ring at Minute Maid (Park)?” Correa said. “Did you see when he was celebrating when we won the championship? He was part of the team. He didn’t say anything about it back then. He definitely should apologize as well.”
The Astros did not offer Fiers a contract after the 2017 season, one in which he led them in innings pitched. He received his World Series ring in 2018 as a member of the Detroit Tigers.
Fiers’ on-the-record comments to The Athletic in November were the first to detail Houston’s signstealing system inside Minute Maid Park. The team used a center-field camera to decode signs in real time, relaying the information via trash can banging inside their dugout.
Although Fiers did not mention one specific Astro in his comments or implicate anyone as a ringleader, Correa urged the A’s pitcher to clarify how much certain players utilized the system.
“Mike Fiers, man, he was our teammate, and he decided to break out the story,” Correa said. “That’s just him. I really don’t have much to say. But what I have to say is that he should tell the truth. He should tell the whole world the truth.”
Many around the sport, including A’s manager Bob Melvin, heralded Fiers for his candor and willingness to speak on the record. Others silently steam at the breach of a clubhouse code that keeps most of a team’s private information inside its confines. “Obviously, everybody has their right to say anything,” said Astros veteran reliever Joe Smith.
Though he was not a member of the Astros’ 2017 team, Smith tweeted in January that “baseball doesn’t need whistleblowers two years later” and that Fiers should have “stepped up and addressed it in house.”
“In baseball culture, this clubhouse, we tend to look at it as a sanctuary,” Smith said Thursday. “Obviously, I don’t know the details of everything that happened at the time, but I’ve been around this clubhouse for long enough. And if something needs to be said, you need to step up and say it.”
Darvish: 2017 title should be stripped
Yu Darvish got hit hard by the Astros during the 2017 World Series — both his ERA and reputation took quite a beating.
On Sunday, after a bullpen session for the Chicago Cubs, he sought to settle the score a bit. He said the Astros, their sign-stealing scheme exposed, should be stripped of their title.
“Like the Olympics, when a player cheats, they can’t have a gold medal,“the Japanese-born star said. “But (Houston) still has a World Series title. It does make me feel weird. That’s it.”
The 33-year-old pitcher became the latest player to criticize the Astros. But Darvish said he wasn’t actually “angry” about the signstealing scandal that resulted managers AJ Hinch, Alex Cora and Carlos Beltran losing their jobs.
Pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Darvish lasted only 11⁄3 innings in both of his 2017 World Series appearances. He was tagged for four runs and six hits in Game 3 at Minute Maid Park in Houston, then the four-time All-Star lost Game 7 at Dodger Stadium.
Darvish wound up with a 21.60 ERA in his two starts. The poor results led many to question whether Darvish was tipping his pitches, or not up to the challenge or just wasn’t very sharp.
“I know they were stealing signs, but at the same time, I was not good during the World Series,“Darvish said. “I’m better for what I went through. But, yeah, everyone is wondering about (their numbers) pitching against them.“
Darvish also referenced the back and forth between former Dodgers teammate Cody Bellinger, the reigning NL MVP, and Astros star Carlos Correa. Darvish said the Astros should be more “apologetic.”
“So they cheat, I think, right now, they don’t have to talk. They shouldn’t talk like that,” Darvish said.
He said he’s been getting harassed on Twitter by Astros fans posting images of the racist gesture Yuli Gurriel made at Darvish after homering off him in Game 3. Major League Baseball suspended Gurriel for the first five games of the 2018 season.
‘Organization needs to accept responsibility’
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred called the Astros’ attempted apology for sign stealing “not successful,” implying that players’ remorse was far more accepted than owner Jim Crane’s.
In an ESPN interview that aired Sunday morning, Manfred defended the immunity he granted Astros players who were involved in the scheme and lauded some for their contrition.
“I don’t absolve the players of responsibility,” Manfred said. “I think in their comments — at least some of them — you can see that they understand that they have a fundamental obligation to play within the rules. I don’t think any of them feel like they’ve been absolved, quite frankly.
“To move on, the entire organization, starting from the top, owner all the way through the players, needs to accept responsibility to apologize not only to their fans but to the fans across the other 29 teams. It’s hard to deny the fact that that’s going to be an ongoing process here. It didn’t get done the other day.”
Crane drew the sport’s ire with a collection of confusing comments. He refused to acknowledge the Astros’ World Series title is in any way tainted and said he felt no need to reach out to the Dodgers or Yankees because, in his words, the sign stealing “had no impact on the game.”
Through a team spokesman, the Chronicle afforded Crane a chance to clarify his comments on Friday. That request has still gone unfulfilled. Players, meanwhile, spoke for more than an hour inside the Astros clubhouse, all expressing some semblance of remorse, contrition and culpability.
“They did a much better job in terms of taking responsibility and expressing remorse,” said Manfred, who did not mention Crane by name in the five-minute segment that aired Sunday morning.
MLB: No evidence of buzzer usage found
Although Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred reiterated during a Sunday interview with ESPN that he found no evidence of wearable devices during his investigation into the Astros, he did not deny the team may have worn buzzers during the 2019 season.
“Can I tell you 100 percent certain that it didn’t happen? No. You can never know that,” Manfred said. “People tell you what they tell you. I will tell you the evidence on this issue was as consistent in the direction that nothing was going on as the evidence was consistent in the direction that there was inappropriate behavior in (2017 and 2018).”
Five Astros players have vehemently denied using any wearable devices during the 2019 season. Carlos Correa said Saturday that story “should be killed already.”
“I think that in a way the piece that no one appreciates is that we found no evidence — not a single witness — who could corroborate that there were buzzers being used during the 2019 season or that they were doing anything during the 2019 season,” Manfred said.