Many around the MLB community believe Houston Astros players should have been included in the discipline handed down by the league over the club’s sign-stealing scandal. Astros owner Jim Crane is not one of them.
Speaking Thursday morning ahead of spring training, Crane apologized and vowed to never let another scandal happen on his watch.
Then, Crane said the players, whom he described as a “great group of guys,” should not be punished and blamed the entire incident on “leaders.”
After Crane spoke, Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve spoke with the media briefly, and Bregman apologized for his “choices,” which speaks volumes about his guilt.
What’s fascinating is that you can’t just blame “leaders,” because other players were absolutely in on the sign-stealing scheme, as you can see here.
Though, according to a recent report, they were supposedly “bullied” into participating by Carlos Beltran. But the big issue with that notion is that the scheme continued to flourish in Houston even after Beltran was out of the organization.
The Astros were punished with significant fines and suspensions, but they did not have to vacate their championship and no players were disciplined. Not surprisingly, many believe the league did not come down hard enough.