The Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal is one of the most controversial baseball stories of the 21st century.
A’s pitcher Mike Fiers, who played for Houston from 2015 to 2017, was responsible for breaking the story, as he first brought the Astros' wrongdoing to light in an interview with The Athletic.
In response to the story and subsequent MLB punishment, the Astros terminated the contracts of both manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow.
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Hinch sat down with MLB Network this week and addressed the fact that one of his former players unmasked the reproachable conduct, as some notable names around baseball recently have criticized Fiers for violating his former teammates' trust.
"I haven't spent a lot of time focusing on the emotional side of the reaction to Mike telling the story and getting this message out,” Hinch told Tom Verducci, via ESPN. “I wish I would have had an environment and a culture that was better for him to have come to me in real time. I wish I could have done better, to maybe get that nudge to make better leadership decisions. I focus on that.
“I understand that there are going to be people on both sides of the argument about what should have happened. But I haven't talked to Mike since 2018, 2019."
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While the timing might not have been ideal, considering Fiers won a World Series with Houston in 2017, it takes a lot of courage to put your name behind something this controversial and expose an organizational indiscretion that has rocked the baseball world.
Hinch does appear contrite and sincere, although he’ll need to do a lot more to return to the game once his year-long suspension ends.