By losing the American League most valuable player award to Mike Trout, Alex Bregman avoided entanglement in a sensitive and possibly embarrassing quandary.
Just a couple of days before last week’s announcement that Trout gained his third M.V.P. award a story broke involving Bregman’s Houston Astros. According to the website The Athletic, the 2017 World Series champion Astros cheated. Violating Major League Baseball rules, they used a sign-stealing scheme that involved the use of electronics.
Where would Bregman and the M.V.P. award fit into the outcome of baseball’s investigation?
After each of the eight major post-season awards, the winner participates in a conference call with members of the Baseball Writers Association. Had Bregman won instead of losing to Trout, 355 points to 335, he would have had to respond to gushy and ridiculous questions, such as “Who was with you when you learned you won?” That’s always a popular question that some writers can’t wait to ask.
In Bregman’s case, I guarantee if no one else asked, I would have asked about illegal sign stealing, just as I asked Trout about being the M.V.P. when his team finished the season a distant fourth with a losing record.
Bregman, though, was not on the phone so he did not have to answer questions about stealing signs, particularly in the league championship series against the Yankees. The Astros won the first two and last two games at home in that series, losing the middle three games in New York. Home was where the sign stealing allegedly occurred.
Jose Altuve, who hits anywhere and everywhere, and Carlos Correa were especially good with timely hits in that series. Both had hits against Masahiro Tanaka as the Astros took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning of Game 1, and the pair combined for the winning run against Aroldis Chapman in the ninth inning of Game 2.
This is not to suggest that the Astros won those games by stealing signs, but there seems to be strong evidence that they engaged in the act of illegally stealing signs.
Under baseball rules baserunners, baseline coaches and anyone in the dugout are allowed to steal signs. What is not allowed is use of electronic means – a television camera, for example – to get the catcher’s signs.
As described by The Athletic, the Astros got the catcher’s signs from the center field television camera and instantly relayed them to a location in the tunnel between the dugout and the clubhouse. There someone wielding a bat would whack a trash can or do nothing.
That reportedly was the way batters were alerted to what kind of pitch was coming: bang the can, changeup or breaking ball; no bang, fastball.
If there are any doubts about this system, Baseball Prospectus has cleverly provided pretty convincing proof. It picked a September game in which the Astros played the White Sox and ran an audio test.
“The slamming sound of the trash can is so clear and distinct that it’s easily visible in the audio data,” the report of the test said, adding, “Note the background noise level from immediately before and the two peaks, corresponding to two whacks on the lid, which was the signal for a breaking ball.
The slamming sound was so loud that it made a significant difference in the noise levels preceding almost all of the breaking balls the White Sox threw in that September game.”
The Astros released a statement when the report appeared online but have said nothing further:
“Regarding the story posted by The Athletic earlier today, the Houston Astros organization has begun an investigation in cooperation with Major League Baseball. It would not be appropriate to comment further on this matter at this time.”
Major League Baseball said:
“Beginning in the 2017 season, numerous Clubs expressed general concerns that other Clubs were stealing their signs. As a result of those concerns, and after receiving extensive input from the General Managers, we issued a revised policy on sign stealing prior to the 2019 season. We also put in place detailed protocols and procedures to provide comfort to Clubs that other Clubs were not using video during the game to decode and steal signs. After we review this new information we will determine any necessary next steps.”
The Athletic reported that “(f)our people who were with the Astros in 2017, including pitcher Mike Fiers, said that during that season, the Astros stole signs during home games in real time with the aid of a camera positioned in the outfield.”
Fiers started 28 games for the Astros in 2017, compiling an 8-10 record and 5.22 earned run average. He pitched for Detroit and Oakland in 2018 and told The Athletic he warned his new teammates about the Astros’ sign-stealing scheme.
No other members of the 2017 Astros have spoken publicly about the alleged practice. Carlos Beltran, who was a Houston outfielder and designated hitter that season and is now the New York Mets manager, has said the Astros did nothing illegal that season. Alex Cora, who was the Astros bench coach and now manages the Boston Red Sox, has declined comment.
Members of the Astros, including General Manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch, have remained silent. It seems highly unlikely, though, that Luhnow and Hinch could escape serious discipline. Hinch was in the dugout, and if someone was whacking a trash can with a bat he had to hear it and know what it was for. Luhnow wasn’t in the dugout, but he’s the team’s top baseball man and is responsible for everything that goes on.
The organization will pay, too, though not necessarily money. With teams awash in money these days, fines are meaningless. That’s why the Astros will very likely be stripped of top draft choices in the June draft, maybe the next two drafts, and a sizable portion of their allowance for signing international free agents.
Besides being suitable discipline for the Astros, such a harsh penalty would send a message to other teams to play by the rules.
TROUT STILL BEST, STILL NOT MOST VALUABLE
I mentioned Mike Trout at the start of this column and just want to register my annual criticism of baseball writers who need remedial lessons in understanding the difference in meaning between “most valuable” and “best.” Contrary to what some writers think, the terms are not synonymous.
I don’t think there’s any doubt that Trout is the best player in the American League, probably in the major leagues. But was his value to the fourth-place 72-90 Angels greater than Alex Bregman’s value to the Astros or DJ LeMahieu’s to the Yankees? Would it have mattered if the Angels had finished behind the Mariners than four games ahead of them?
Without Trout, the worst the Angels would have done is finish fifth. Without Bregman and LeMahieu, it’s likely that the Astros and the Yankees would not have been division champions and post-season participants.
I asked Trout on the conference call about that seeming contradiction.
“I try to be the best, and I’m doing everything to win and help my team,” Trout said, not answering the question directly. “I just want to help my team and play my game.”
What, I asked, would you like to see the Angels do to help them win?
“There’s a lot of new staff to help build up the team,” he said. “I signed to help build a winning team.”
I have to imagine Trout has considered this, but in opting to remain with the Angels for 12 years and $426.5 million, he has made it more difficult for them economically to acquire enough other good players to construct a winning team.