ARLINGTON, Texas — About 20 bigwigs from major-league teams wore orange vests and white hard hats here in a hotel lobby Wednesday morning, preparing for their tour of the Rangers’ still-under-construction ballpark Globe Life Field right next door.

Astros owner Jim Crane didn’t ask to keep his hard hat. He might live to regret that.

Just as they were at last month’s World Series and at last week’s general managers’ meetings, the Astros find themselves dominating baseball discussion at the owners’ meetings for all of the wrong reasons. They are under investigation for a pair of transgressions, first their actions following the Brandon Taubman mess and second for allegations they illegally, electronically stole signs in 2017 and perhaps later.

Commissioner Rob Manfred briefly discussed the latter investigation Tuesday at a news conference and is expected to delve into more details, or at least entertain more questions about it, in a Thursday news conference at the conclusion of these meetings.

Crane, encountering a small group of reporters Wednesday, politely declined to take questions.

“If you want to talk about baseball, I’ll talk about baseball,” he said. “What else do you want to talk about? Any other issues…”

At that juncture, before any other issues could be proposed, an off-duty police officer working for the hotel — in uniform, including gun holster — escorted Crane out of the scrum.

While owners and team bigwigs generally avoided public comment, the fury held by other teams toward the Astros remains as palpable as it was last week among the GMs.

Rays president Matt Silverman, whose team lost to Houston in the 2019 American League Division Series — a series in which the Astros won all three home games and lost their two road games — smiled when asked about the Astros and reiterated a comment he made to the Tampa Bay Times last weekend.

“We lost. We don’t cheat,” Silverman said. “Nothing will change that.”

Dodgers president Stan Kasten, who has been a professional sports executive for four decades, grinned when The Post reminded him that his club lost the 2017 World Series to the Astros in the year they have been accused of cheating by Mike Fiers, a pitcher on that Houston team.

While he stressed that he didn’t need the reminder, Kasten nevertheless declined comment.

Just as with the outrage spouted by players and front-office folks, this issue strikes owners right where it hurts: Their ability to make money.

Look at how much the Rays lost this season by dropping ALDS Game 5 at Minute Maid Park. If they could have upset the Astros, they would have played the Yankees in the AL Championship Series, which would have meant a significant revenue uptick with two or three more home games and, let’s face it, those contests would’ve been sellouts if for no other reason than plenty of Yankees fans would’ve traveled to the Sunshine State. Perhaps it could’ve increased area enthusiasm to figure out ways for a new Rays ballpark, a longtime goal.

Now, to be fair, no evidence exists so far that the Astros illicitly stole signs in 2019. Yet given everything we know about their activities, if baseball published a high school yearbook each November, the Astros would win “Most Likely to Electronically Steal Signs” from the class of ’19. You can’t blame the Rays for wondering.

On Thursday morning, Manfred, without compromising the integrity of his investigation, must offer more insight on how the Astros’ two transgressions intersect (or don’t). He should make clear whether his Sept. 15, 2017 public statement — that, in the wake of the Red Sox Apple Watch scandal, more severe penalties would be in play — serves as a line of demarcation, as the Astros appear to have utilized their illegal system six days after that against White Sox pitcher Danny Farquhar. And he needn’t be shy about questioning the Astros’ culture under Crane, given how much has gone sideways with them despite their on-the-field success.

Shoot, if Crane had any foresight, he’d collect all those hard hats and truck them back to Houston. It’s gonna be a long winter for these guys, and they’ll find zero sympathy among their brethren.