At least one Astros player seems to be warming to the team’s villainous reputation.
Many around baseball have taken issue with the dubious logic with which the Astros players have acknowledged their sign-stealing scandal: Yes, we did it and no, it did not help us win the World Series. Josh Reddick has apparently heard enough.
“At some point, you have to move on and not give a s–t,” the outfielder told the Washington Post. “We’re going to go out there and win and shut everybody up.”
The Astros, despite losing ace Gerrit Cole to the Yankees, are still among the World Series favorites. According to commissioner Rob Manfred and the Astros players, the team’s cheating ended during the 2018 season and Houston did not use any system to cheat the game on the way to the World Series last season.
The Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger, a rookie on the 2017 team that lost to the Astros in the World Series, has been among the most vocal critics of the Astros. Carlos Correa told The Athletic that Bellinger should “shut the f–k up” and starting pitcher Lance McCullers seemed to have a similar message for the Dodgers.
“[The teams talking trash are] going to have to play us,” McCullers told the Washington Post. “Except for the guys who are popping off the most … those guys aren’t going to have to face us, which is maybe why they feel like they can speak like that.
“But we’re moving on. That’s not what people may want to hear, but we stood here as men and we addressed [the scandal]. … We’re just looking forward to playing baseball again.”
Though the roster largely remains the same from the team that fell to the Nationals in seven games, the biggest question could be how Astros players will be able to handle the increased scrutiny that will come with every 2-for-20 slump or three-game losing streak.
“People are going to look back and say, ‘They’re not using anything, so they obviously suck without it.’ But that’s not the case. We got too many good players in here,” Reddick said.