CC KICKS ASTROS
Sabathia calls out Houston (and Boston) over sign stealing, says Yankees cheated out of titles
CC Sabathia is saying what a lot of players throughout baseball are feeling: “We got cheated.” The now-retired Yankee lefty said he personally is wondering if the Astros cheated when he was on the mound for the 2017 American League Championship Series, when the report said Houston was still using it’s illegal system of electronically stealing and relaying signs to hitters. He’s now wondering out loud if they stole one of his last chances at a World Series.
He is also not sure the Red Sox — whose manager Alex Cora was fired Tuesday for his part in the scheme as the 2017 Astros bench coach — cheated the Yankees again with Boston in the 2018 American League Division Series.
“As everything’s been coming out, and the more facts that we get, it’s getting frustrating, man,” Sabathia said on Tuesday night’s episode of “Inside The NFL” on Showtime, “to sit here and know that late in my career I could’ve had a title, maybe ’17 or maybe ’18, but we got cheated out of a team kind of doing something that’s not within the rules of the game.”
Sabathi a, who will continue to work in the Yankees organization in some capacity, said he would have no problem with MLB “vacating” the Astros’ 2017 World Series title.
“Maybe, yeah. I mean, why not? … Vacate it,” Sabathia said. “I wouldn’t be mad at that.”
But you can’t simply rewrite history — though maybe Sabathia would like to. In that 2017 decisive Game 7 of the ALCS, the Astros scored a run on five hits on him in just 3.1 innings.
There is no way of knowing what would have happened if the Astros were not employing their illegal system of electronic sign stealing. And Sabathia, who is no longer bound by the constraints of being an active player, is just saying what most players and some rival executives are privately grumbling about.
While you can’t change the history of what happened, it is still affecting baseball today.
Sabathia’s resume is certainly that of a strong Hall of Fame candidate. But it also has just one World Series title, would it be looked at differently if he had two.
“It’s not just the playoffs,” one executive said, “what about the pitchers who went into free agency and had the flag on them that they always got hammered by the Astros. What about players that went into arbitration and didn’t have their real numbers because they played against the Astros?”
What about Aaron Judge? The Yankees slugger certainly has to wonder not only was his team robbed of a fair chance to go to the World Series in 2017, but did he miss a chance at another accolade that certainly would have added to a possible arbitration case?
In 2017, Judge not only won the AL Rookie of the Year, but he finished second in the MVP voting that year — to Jose Altuve. Judge hit .284/ .422/.627 with a rookie record 52 homers and 114 RBI that year.
Altuve hit an incredible .346/.410/.547 with 24 home runs and 81 RBI.
We’ll never know if he got so many hits that season because he knew what was coming.
We’ll never know because MLB granted the Astros players immunity in this investigation, naming only one involved in the scheme: former Astros designated hitter and current Mets manager Carlos Beltran. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred made the decision not to discipline any player, but made a point to say twice in the report that most of the Astros players took part in the scheme.
“Assessing discipline of players for this type of conduct is both difficult and impractical. It is difficult because virtually all of the Astros’ players had some involvement or knowledge of the scheme, and I am not in a position based on the investigative record to determine with any degree of certainty every player who should be held accountable, or their relative degree of culpability,” Manfred said in the report which was released Monday. “It is impractical given the large number of players involved, and the fact that many of those players now play for other Clubs.”
So Sabathia will never know what might have been. Neither will Judge or any of the other players who competed against the Astros in the past. While MLB issued discipline that many think was just, but hard in the one-year suspensions of manager A.J.
Hinch and General Manager Jeff Luhnow, both of whom were fired, the loss of the first two rounds of draft picks in the next two years and a $5 million fine, it really doesn’t provide any closure for the guys who play the game.
The players are left feeling like Sabathia, that they were the ones who were cheated.
ONE FISH, TWO FISH
The Yankees picked up minor league third baseman James Nelson and cash considerations from the Marlins in exchange for left-handed reliever Stephen Tarpley, who was designated for assignment last week.
The 22-year old Nelson spent the entire 2019 season in Class A Jupiter, batting .228 with 13 doubles, two triples, four homer and 36 RBI in 121 games. Over four minor league seasons, the right-handed hitter has hit .259.
Tarpley, 26, made 31 for the Yankees, including one start from 2018-19, going 1-0 with two saves and a 5.88 ERA.