Yankees manager Aaron Boone says he's hopeful that the clear, stern message Major League Baseball sent by punishing the Houston Astros will lead to a more honest sport moving forward.
In an interview with the YES Network that aired Thursday night, Boone said he found the revelations from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's report on the Astros' sign-stealing scandal to be "disappointing, frustrating."
"Frankly, I spent a couple days kind of trying to get my head wrapped around the emotions that I was feeling about it because there's people you care about involved," Boone said. "But in the end, you hope these are significant steps -- and I believe that they are -- that will get us to a point where we have a much cleaner, much more fair game between the lines, and that's where we want things decided anyway."
"Hopefully we've put an end to this."Aaron Boone weighs in on the Astros scandal & what it means for baseball going forward. #YANKSonYES pic.twitter.com/Tx0750tliC
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) January 24, 2020The Astros scheme, during their 2017 World Series-winning season, consisted of positioning a camera in center field at Minute Maid Park to zero in on catchers' signs, which were then relayed to batters by having players, who were monitoring the video feed on a computer, bang on a trash can in the tunnel near the team's dugout.
The Astros beat the Yankees in a seven-game ALCS that year. Boone was hired as manager shortly after. Houston eliminated the Yankees in the ALCS again last season, but MLB's investigation did not find evidence of cheating in 2019.
Major League Baseball suspended Astros manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow for one season, fined the team $5 million and stripped it of its first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021. The Astros fired Hinch and Luhnow moments after MLB's punishment was handed down.
Additionally, Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who was the Astros' bench coach in 2017 and named in the commissioner's report, was fired. Boston is the subject of a separate sign-stealing investigation, and Cora is expected to be suspended once that report is issued.
New Mets manager Carlos Beltran, who was the only player named in the Astros report, also lost his job in the fallout.
While Major League Baseball only confirmed the Astros' wrongdoing last week, Boone and general manager Brian Cashman said the idea of sign-stealing was constantly on the Yankees' minds.
"I think for a long time, teams, we've all been kind of guarded against the unknown of what exactly is going on out there, especially with the explosion of technology," Boone said. "So hopefully we've put an end to this and kind of cut it off finally, and obviously the penalties that have been handed down so far have been very significant and hopefully do act as a real deterrent and make our game better moving forward."
"This story hasn't been fully resolved."Yankees GM Brian Cashman shares his thoughts on the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal. #YANKSonYES pic.twitter.com/thIMgzgUF1
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) January 24, 2020Added Cashman: "We've done our due diligence and have tried to do everything we could and have done everything we can to try to obviously protect our signs as much as possible," he said. "And we've continued to evolve over the course of time because of concerns. Obviously baseball's now determined, with the strong assistance of Mike Fiers coming forward and being a whistleblower to really shed light on some of the things that were occurring down in Houston, clearly."
The Yankees GM said he hasn't yet delivered any messages to his staff about the Astros scandal because members have been dispersed since the sanctions were handed down.
"The healthy thing to do now is to try to focus on the future and try not to look back too much," Cashman said.
