The Astros Cheating Scandal Still Looms Large Five Years Later

With Juan Soto comfortably in Queens for the next 15 years, MLB’s hot stove has mostly moved on to trades. The Yankees need to replace Soto’s production in their suddenly thin lineup, and the two obvious targets for doing so are the Cubs’ Cody Bellinger and the Astros’ Kyle Tucker.

Tucker would be the clear top choice for the Yankees after four straight stellar years in Houston, and the Yankees are among several teams that have reportedly made an offer for the 27-year-old outfielder. Bellinger, meanwhile, would be a natural replacement for Tucker in Houston.

In both cases, though, the years-old Astros cheating scandal still looms large.

Despite the Astros nearly fully turning over their roster and front office from the peak cheating years of 2017 to 2019, the scandal still reverberates around baseball. Yankees GM Brian Cashman emerges every fall to claim his team was robbed of a ring or two by the “banging scheme,” and now, the fallout from the scandal may be warping the trade and free-agency markets.

ESPN’s Jesse Rogers reports the fallout from the Astros’ cheating could mean that instead, Bellinger heads to New York, and Tucker goes to Chicago.

“I’m also hearing weird things like Houston won’t trade for Bellinger because of things he said about the cheating scandal seven years ago,” Rogers said on Chicago talk radio. “Meanwhile, the Astros won’t trade Tucker to New York because of the rivalry that happened there.”

Update, Dec. 13, 2:43 p.m.: The first domino implied by Rogers’s reporting fell Friday afternoon, with the Astros trading Tucker to Chicago for Isaac Paredes and prospects. Our original story continues below.

It wasn’t quite seven years ago, but Bellinger—among dozens of players furious with baseball’s handling of the scandal—did go on a memorable rant in February 2020, when he was a member of the Dodgers. The scope of the Astros’ cheating had been reported in The Athletic a few months earlier, and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced his relatively light punishments for the franchise that winter. Manager AJ Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow were suspended for a year, while the Astros forfeited four draft picks and were fined $5 million. The players involved were not punished, though the Red Sox and Mets ended up firing their managers—Alex Cora and Carlos Beltrán, respectively—that winter for their involvement.

Bellinger’s Dodgers had lost to the Astros in the 2017 World Series, probably the apex of Houston’s sign-stealing scheme.

“I thought the apologies were whatever. I thought Jim Crane’s was weak,” he said of the Astros owner. “I thought Manfred’s punishment was weak—giving them immunity. I mean these guys were cheating for three years,” Bellinger said at the time. (MLB’s investigation found that the Astros stopped cheating in 2018, but a 2021 book reported that the Astros were illegally stealing signs well into the 2019 playoffs.) “I think what people don’t realize is: Altuve stole an MVP from [Aaron] Judge in ‘17. Everyone knows they stole the ring from us. I know personally I lost respect for those guys. … I would say everyone in The Show, in the big leagues, lost respect for those guys.”

Bellinger went on to all but accuse Jose Altuve of wearing a wire under his jersey for his infamous walk-off home run off Aroldis Chapman in the 2019 ALCS, one of the most tantalizing but unproven allegations of the era. Altuve is one of the only remaining players still on the Astros from the cheating teams, and evidence strongly indicates he largely avoided the trash-can bangs because he didn’t like to hear signals while hitting.

For their part, the Yankees—despite their own questionable sign-stealing operation from 2015 to 2017—have never really moved on. They lost in the ALCS to the Astros in 2017 and 2019, and the franchise has essentially attached an asterisk to those losses. As recently as October of this year, Cashman was asked about the Yankees’ 15-year title drought and brought up the Astros.

“I hate the 15-year thing because it completely forgets and discounts that some other organization cheated us when we were all the way in the end,” Cashman said. “If you knew what was going on, I don’t think they would be advancing during that time. … I think we would have been advancing. I hate that 15-year thing, because I don’t think it accurately reflects history.”

The Dodgers ended up beating Cashman’s Yankees in the World Series, ensuring the drought was extended to 16 years. And if the Astros have any say in it, it might be longer.