HOUSTON — Several Astros players were at FanFest Saturday, and some of them were talking about the sign-stealing scandal.
Alex Bregman was signing baseballs but took time to talk to the media. He told us that Major League Baseball made its decision and the Astros cooperated. He added that going into the season, "Actions will speak louder than words."
When asked about the latest rumors swirling around players wearing buzzers to tip them off to pitches, Bregman said that kind of talk was "stupid."
Jose Altuve addressed the report and recent firings of AJ Hinch and Jeff Luhnow, saying, "it's a tough situation. As a team, we have to stick together."
Earlier this week, a tweet from someone claiming to be Carlos Beltran’s niece said that both Bregman and Astros slugger Jose Altuve used the wearable devices. Later, the tweets were deleted and Beltran’s family said the person who tweeted has no relation to them.
And later, KHOU got a statement from Major League Baseball, saying they found no evidence of wearable devices during their investigation.
On Monday, MLB came down hard on the Astros for the sign-stealing scheme, in which Houston batters would know what pitch was coming based on how many bangs were heard on a trash can.
Both Hinch and Luhnow were suspended by the league. Then Astros owner Jim Crane fired them.
The team was fined $5 million and lost draft picks.
Alex Cora, who was bench coach for the Astros in 2017 before being hired to manage the Red Sox, also lost his job. And Beltran, who was also on the 2017 Astros team and was mentioned in the report, was out as Mets manager before managing a single game.