MLB News: Josh Reddick Hints Yankees Were Cheated, Slams Former Astros Teammate

The Houston Astros’ run to a World Series title in 2017 is still tainted in the eyes of many fans.

This week, we learned how polarizing the issue is among some of the directors involved.

More news: World Series News: Yankees GM Blasts Astros Over Cheating Scandal

Astros hitters used an illegal system to steal opponents’ signs in real time during the 2017 and 2018 games, such as revealed in a report by The Athletic and more detailed in a Major League Baseball investigation. Players and staff used a camera in center field to capture signals from opposing catchers, transmitting them to batters through a series of loud hits on a trash can.

Six years later, New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman is still bitter about losing to the Astros in the 2017 American League Championship Series.

More news: How to watch all the games between the Dodgers and the Yankees

In an interview with High Heat’s Christopher Russo on Major Leagues Network on Wednesday, Cashman launched into the misdeeds of the 2017 Astros without warning.

“I hate that 15-year thing,” Cashman said of the Yankees’ time between World Series appearances, “because it completely forgets and discounts that some other organization cheated on us when we were down to the wire. If you only knew what it was like going on, I don’t think they would have moved forward during that time. I think we would have been moving forward.

“I hate that 15-year thing because I don’t think it accurately reflects history.”

Retired Major League outfielder Josh Reddick, a member of the 2017 and 2018 Astros teams, did not accept Cashman’s comments.

“Hey Brian,” Reddick asked rhetorically on his Twitter/X account, “why did your team score less than five runs in Minute Maid but score all those runs in New York?”

The implications of Reddick’s comment are clear.

The Yankees scored a combined three runs in four games in Houston during the 2017 American League Championship Series. They scored 19 runs in three games at Yankee Stadium during the same series. Because? Among Astros fans, it’s practically canon that the Yankees had their own sign-stealing system that they employed in their home park.

The Yankees were fined $100,000 by commissioner Rob Manfred for using their dugout phone to transmit information about opposing teams’ signals during the 2015 season. and part of 2016. The fine was revealed in a September 14, 2017 letter from Manfred to Cashman that was due to be unsealed in the United States District Court in New York in 2022.

Although no plans involving the 2017 Yankees were ever discovered, Reddick isn’t the only one fanning the flames of suspicion.

“Beyond bullshit,” Astros podcaster Walt Penberthy said of Cashman’s comments. “And while you’re at it, you can explain your own sign-stealing plan.”

Reddick wasn’t done pointing fingers.

When a Twitter/X user responded to his original post asking him to explain how “every other team” cheated, Reddick responded, “No, I’m not a snitch.”

The same user noted that a tip from former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers led to the original report in The Athletic implicating the team for illegally stealing signs, a tip corroborated anonymously by other Astros teammates. Reddick later said Fiers “was a teammate even before he snitched.”

Exchanges like these between athletes and fans do not usually take place in public. Without details, fans are left to speculate about the substance of Reddick’s comments.

Still, it’s further evidence of how deep feelings run about what happened in the dugouts of the 2017 postseason participants, and how difficult it is for managers on both sides to simply “move on.”

For more Major Leagues news, visit Sports Newsweek.