Confession is good for the soul — especially if you’re an announcer for the team you cheated against.
Ex-Houston Astros star Carlos Beltran was hired by the New York Yankees’ YES Network this season. In a “CenterStage” interview with Michael Kay premiering Monday, Beltran admits there’s a stain on the sign-stealing Astros 2017 World Series championship.
In 2020, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred punished the Astros with a $5 million fine and the loss of their first two picks in the 2020 and 2021 Drafts. After Beltran was implicated in the scandal, he lost his job as New York Mets manager before even holding his first practice.
“Yes, we did cross the line … Looking back today, we were wrong,” Beltran tells Kay during the interview.
Beltran should know. He was one of the architects of the scheme that enabled the Astros to beat the Yankees in that season’s American League Championship Series, then the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
Beltran recalls a conspiracy of cowards. Players were afraid to speak up because they were winning. Ditto for management. They all justified it by claiming other teams were cheating too.
“Why you gonna stop something that is working for you?” asks Beltran. “So, if the organization would’ve said something to us, we would’ve stopped it for sure.”
As part of his punishment of the Astros, Manfred also suspended manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow for one year. Both were promptly fired by the Astros. Hinch is now managing the Detroit Tigers.
Beltran’s CenterStage interview airs at 7 p.m. ET.
