UPDATED 1/16, 4:00 p.m. ET: After news of Carlos Beltran's resignation broke, a Twitter account claiming to belong to Beltran's niece let fly an accusation that Astros stars Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman wore buzzers inside their jerseys.
After the tweets made the rounds, Beltran's family spoke to ESPN's Marly Rivera and clarified that the person behind the account was not related to the family in any way, and the account has since been deactivated.
Still, the rumor that Altuve and Bregman used buzzing devices to help notify them about incoming pitches continues to bubble, thanks to a pair of videos that show Altuve acting strangely about his jersey while his teammates celebrated last season's ALCS win.
It's also worth noting that despite that purported account of Beltran's niece having been discredited, current MLB pitchers Trevor Bauer and Mike Clevinger seemed to corroborate the accusations.
Altuve clearly caught wind of the growing controversy, and made a statement through his agent, Scott Boras.
Here's what Alex Bregman had to say about the growing scandal.
We met with Carlos last night and again this morning and agreed to mutually part ways. This was not an easy decision. Considering the circumstances, it became clear to all parties that it was not in anyone’s best interest for Carlos to move forward as Manager of the New York Mets. We believe that Carlos was honest and forthcoming with us. We are confident that this will not be the final chapter in his baseball career. We remain excited about the talent on this team and are committed to reaching our goals of winning now and in the future.
While nothing has been proven yet, the cheating scandal that has rocked baseball doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon.
UPDATED 1/16, 2:00 p.m. ET: Mets manager Carlos Beltrán, who was hired to the position on Nov. 1, 2019 (and has yet to actually manage a game), has told the team that he will be stepping down. Beltran was named in commissioner Rob Manfred's report on the sign-stealing investigation's findings earlier this week, as he was an Astros player in 2017.
“Approximately two months into the 2017 season, a group of players, including Carlos Beltrán, discussed that the team could improve on decoding opposing teams’ signs and communicating the signs to the batter," the report stated.
The news was first reported by Yahoo's Tim Brown:
Beltran's resignation was made official via a statement from team COO Jeff Wilpon and general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, in which they said:
UPDATED 1/14, 7:45 p.m. ET:The Boston Red Sox released a statement Tuesday announcing that the team and manager Alex Cora have "mutually agreed to part ways."
The Red Sox organization's decision to move on from Cora comes one day after the Commissioner's report on the sign-stealing scandal involving the Houston Astros mentions his name on numerous occasions. Cora was a bench coach when the Astros won their first World Series title in the now controversial 2017 season.
See original story below.
On Monday, ESPN reported that the MLB has suspended Houston Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch for the entire 2020 season for their role in the sign-stealing scandal. It was later reported that they were both fired by owner Jim Crane.
In 2019, the Astros were accused of stealing signs from opposing teams en route to winning the 2017 World Series. Four people associated with the team—including former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers—admitted to The Athletic in November that Houston would use a camera in the outfield to steal the signals that catchers showed pitchers during home games.
Throughout the duration of a given game, Astros personnel would decode the signals. When they figured out what sign indicated which pitch would be thrown, the coaching staff would signal the incoming pitches to the batter by banging on trash cans in the dugout. This violates league rules, and prompted the MLB to launch an investigation into the accusations.
The investigation covered a period from 2016 through the present. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the MLB's Department of Investigations interviewed 68 witnesses (some more than once) of which 23 were current Astros players. Current Mets and Red Sox managers Alex Cora and Carlos Beltran were also implicated. Multiple reports suggest Cora will receive a hefty punishment as well, since he was reportedly the one who devised the scheme.
Along with the suspension of Luhnow and Hinch, the Astros were also stripped of its first and second-round picks in the 2020 and 2021 drafts as well as ordered to pay a $5 million fine. Although it is widely believed that this information helped Houston win the 2017 World Series, the MLB will not force the club to forfeit its only championship.
Here how people are reacted to the news:
