Gerrit Cole is on another team, but he spoke in defense of his former teammates with the Houston Astros.
Cole was not part of the 2017 World Series squad at the center of the sign-stealing scandal in Major League Baseball.
Cole told Nightengale he'll miss his former teammates and expects to respond well to becoming the league-wide villains.
“They’re under scrutiny right now. So many people are coming after them," Cole told Nightengale.
“I anticipate them bunkering down. I think they are going to play really hard, and really well this year. Hopefully if they do that, maybe they can quiet it down a little bit, proving this will be a fresh slate for them.
“But I’m telling you, we played fair and square last year. I didn’t see anything in 2018 either. I really didn’t. But no one wants to hear it now.’’
Some of Cole's new teammates with Yankees have been vocal critics of the Astros. Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres have accused the Astros of cheating as recently as last season's playoff run, when Houston knocked New York out of the American League Championship series with a Jose Altuve home run.
“Everybody is entitled to their opinion,’’ he said, “it’s their own opinion. People handle this the way they want to handle it. We’re all grown guys around here. I’m certainly not going to tell somebody how to think. I’m personally not offended about it.
“But I’m not sure that forgiveness is something that some people will even want to talk about right now.’’