Players Speak Out

Sam Vercruysse

The ongoing saga that is the Astros sign stealing scandal added a new chapter this past week as many of the game’s top players including Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton of the New York Yankees spoke out on the issue. After Mike Trout and Cody Bellinger expressed their disgust with the Astros players and organization we heard from Aaron Judge who lost the 2017 AL MVP race to Jose Altuve state how he felt “cheated” out of the title in 2017 and how he has lost respect for the players on the Astros roster that were involved. When Giancarlo Stanton was asked about his thoughts on the issue his message was the same and he even added that in his NL MVP season where he hit 59 home runs he would have hit 80 home runs if he knew what was coming clearly alluding to clear advantage the Astros had during that season. This week ended with perhaps the biggest star in sports at this moment, LeBron James backing up the feelings of the players that have spoken out saying that he would be furious if he had gotten cheated out of a title and called for commissioner Rob Manfred to listen to his players. It’s hard to tell if any of this talk will lead to the right thing being done but it is very powerful that these big names are showing their disgust with the Astros after their rather weak apology. I have no doubt that there will be some vigilante justice handed out by some players this season, but that is not going to be enough and until the commissioner’s office and the player’s union come together to create an appropriate punishment for the Astros players. Until then the MLB can expect to keep hearing the negative opinions of its players, fans and media.