Carlos Beltrán opens up about Astros' sign-stealing scandal, says title is stained: 'We did cross the line' (2024)

Carlos Beltrán, the 20-year big-league veteran who has disappeared from the public eye since being fired asNew York Metsmanager in 2020, joined YES Network over the offseason as a game analyst. Prior to Opening Day, Beltrán has recorded an interview with Michael Kay that the network hyped on Sunday by sending out notable quotables and exchanges. The interview itself, scheduled to be broadcast on Monday, sees Beltrán explain his role in the Houston Astros' sign-stealing scandal, the controversy that led to his dismissal, and address both the origins and fallout of Houston's plot. (Note that the excerpts below are courtesy of James Wagner of the New York Times.)

Beltrán now admits that the Astros "crossed the line" with their sign-stealing scheme and agreed that there is a stain on the 2017 World Series championship. But Beltrán noted that the organization never said anything or attempted to put a stop to the operation. Rather, he claims the front office did not share the contents or message of a letter Major League Baseball sent to clubs in 2017. "If the organization would've said something to us, we would've stopped for sure," he says.

Meanwhile, the Astros' improper conduct, Beltrán says, stemmed from their desire to be "more efficient" and "smarter than any team out there." In line with that motivation, the Astros moved their video room from within the clubhouse to next to the dugout, the area from which they would decode the opposition's signs and hit a trash can to alert their hitters of what pitch was coming. Still, Beltrán says, the Astros "didn't feel we were really crossing the line" at the time.

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Beltrán also makes it clear that he's frustrated with how MLB's investigation played out, with him being the only player named in the report. "That's the part I don't understand," he says, "everyone gets immunity except Carlos Beltrán. I don't get it."

Beltrán was one of three managers to lose his job after MLB published its investigation's findings, alongside AJ Hinch and Alex Cora. Both Hinch and Cora have since found new managerial gigs, with Hinch joining the Detroit Tigers and Cora returning to the Boston Red Sox. Beltrán, once viewed as a promising managerial candidate, hasn't so much as interviewed for a position. Jeff Luhnow, the Astros' former general manager, is the only other individual involved with the scandal who hasn't since found a new job with a MLB organization.