MESA, Ariz. - On Saturday, Astros shortstop Carlos Correa insisted that A’s starter Mike Fiers specify that 2017 AL MVP José Altuve did not take part in Houston’s systematic sign-stealing that season.

Sunday, The Chronicle asked Fiers, the public whistleblower in the Astros’ cheating scandal, if he’d like to respond to Correa’s prompting, and Fiers politely declined comment.

Then, before walking away, Fiers added, “We did it as a team.”

Correa’s comments the previous day were in response to reigning NL MVP Cody Bellinger’s contention Friday that Altuve “stole the MVP” award from Aaron Judge of the Yankees in 2017.

CALLED OUT: Carlos Correa says Mike Fiers should 'tell the truth' and apologize

Saturday, Correa said that Altuve did not use the trash-can banging scheme that relayed pitch type to hitters, and, he said, "Mike Fiers know that Altuve didn't use the trash can," Correa said. "You guys are gonna find out because I'm sure somebody is gonna ask him, and he's gonna tell everybody.

"If he's man enough to tell the truth and tell his story and break this story, he should be man enough to say that the MVP of 2017 didn't use it.”

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Fiers has not spoken publicly about the scandal since his comments to the Athletic website in November helped spark an investigation that led to sanctions against the Astros and cost manager A.J. Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow their jobs (as well as Mets manager Carlos Beltran and Red Sox manager Alex Cora). He repeatedly has said that he wants to focus on the upcoming season and not be a distraction to his teammates.

Fiers informed Detroit, the team he signed with after leaving Houston, about the scheme, as well as the A’s and A’s manager Bob Melvin and GM David Forst confirmed this week when The Chronicle asked that Oakland was among the teams to file a formal complaint about the Astros’ cheating. Nothing happened, however, until Fiers’ comments were made public.

BRIAN T. SMITH: Astros can’t move forward until they stop damaging themselves

Fiers did not discuss any Astros players by name in his comments to the Athletic last fall. Video analysis indicates that the trash-can bangs can be heard in only 2.8 percent of Altuve’s 2017 at-bats and Correa said that Altuve got mad when the bangs happened because he didn’t want to know what was coming. Even if Altuve did not take part in the scheme, however, it’s evident he still would have beneifted from the scheme because he would have had more runners on base in front of him who did cheat and protection in the lineup behind him by players with numbers inflated by the scheme.

Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser