In the court of public opinion, one tweet is all it takes to reach a guilty verdict.

Photo by Philip Strong on Unsplash

By: An Astros Fan

It is not an easy time to be an Astros fan. On January 13, 2020, Commissioner of Baseball, Rob Manfred, released a statement regarding the MLB’s investigation into the Houston Astros and their alleged use of illegal sign-stealing methods in the 2017 season. The scope of the investigation ranged from the 2016 season to the 2019 postseason and involved interviews with 68 witnesses, including 23 current and former Astros players. The investigators reviewed tens of thousands of emails, text messages, video clips and photographs, and searched the cell phones of certain Astros employees. According to the Commissioner’s statement, the investigation was thorough, and the Astros fully cooperated. The Astros were found guilty of violating MLB rules in the 2017 season and postseason, and also during parts of the 2018 season.

As the verdict was handed down, so was the sentence. The Commissioner declared one year suspensions for Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch — each of whom was fired by the organization shortly thereafter — the forfeiture of first and second round draft picks for the years 2020 and 2021, and a $5 million fine (the league maximum) levied against the organization. At the outset of the investigation, the players were spared discipline in exchange for truthful testimony. The organization viewed in recent years as the model of how to build a farm system had its future handicapped, the person responsible for developing such a system removed, and the man in charge of putting the product to work ousted as well.

Initial reactions to the sentencing were mixed. Tim Kurkjian, an iconic MLB analyst and journalist, described the punishment as “harsh, but . . . necessary.” Jeff Passan, an MLB columnist for ESPN who initially broke the story, detailed the underlying dissatisfaction with the sentence by other owners and described the result of the investigation as a “thorough and impressive whitewashing.” Buster Olney, a Senior Writer for ESPN, noted that “while two individuals got hammered, the institution that stood to glean enormous benefit from the systematic illicit behavior was mostly left untouched, the players who participated left unscathed.” Stephen A. Smith, a sports television personality, initially labeled the punishment as “excessive,” but the next morning reversed course (presumably after getting through all nine pages of the Commissioner’s statement) and decided the Astros should be stripped of their 2017 title. While the question of whether the punishment fell short of the crime was up for debate, one thing was certain — the Astros did not deserve anyone’s sympathy.

The investigation into the Astros and subsequent findings of foul play was largely viewed as the most controversial event since the steroid era. Then Thursday, January 16th happened. The timeline is important:

October 19, 2019: Jose Altuve hits a 2-run home-run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 6 of the ALCS to send the Astros to the World Series. After rounding third base, Altuve is seen telling teammates not to rip his shirt off. When asked by Ken Rosenthal about his reluctance to lose his jersey, Altuve said it was due to his shy personality and also noted that his wife became upset the last time his jersey was ripped off.

November 12, 2019: Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich publish an article with The Athletic detailing the Astros use of an illegal sign-stealing method during the 2017 season. The allegations outlined the installation of a center-field camera to live-stream the opposing team’s catcher to a screen just behind the Astros dugout. A member of the Astros organization would bang a trash can to relay stolen signs to an Astros hitter.

November 18, 2019: Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that scouts and executives in the league were concerned electronic buzzers may have been or could be used as an illegal sign-relaying device. Sherman’s piece did not tie such concern to the Astros.

November 18, 2019: The same day Sherman’s story came out in the New York Post, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer jokes in a video on Twitter about using an electronic band-aid to help with his poker game.

January 13, 2020: The Commissioner releases a statement regarding the investigation into the Astros, its findings supporting the allegations set forth in Rosenthal and Drellich’s article, and the resulting punishment.

January 15, 2020: A New York sports network tweets out a clip from Michael Kay’s radio broadcast where the hosts speculate as to whether the reason Jose Altuve did not want his jersey ripped off after hitting the ALCS winning home-run was to keep an electronic device hidden from view.

January 16, 2020: A Twitter account posing as Carlos Beltran’s niece tweets that Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman “wore devices that buzzed on inside right shoulder from hallway video guy.” The account was later discovered to be a burner account for a user named “Incarcerated Bob” who runs a sports gambling operation and is known as an unreliable source.

January 16, 2020: Trevor Bauer tweets that he has heard from “multiple parties” that Altuve and Bregman wore electronic devices. Jimmy “Jomboy” O’Brien also tweets that he has heard about the buzzers from “about 5 different parties.”

January 16, 2020: Jose Altuve releases a statement through his agent, Scott Boras, stating that “I have never worn an electronic device in my performance as a major league player.”

January 16, 2020: The MLB responds to the speculation and states that it “explored wearable devices during the investigation but found no evidence to substantiate it.”

In sum, after a tweet from a burner account alleged, without any evidence, that Altuve and Bregman wore illegal electronic devices and two MLB personalities tweeted that each had heard the same from unnamed sources, the MLB world went into a frenzy.

With evidence lacking, Twitter was on the case. Images quickly surfaced that purported to show Josh Reddick giving an interview with a suspicious piece of tape on his body. This was quickly debunked, as the piece of tape was shown to be a piece of confetti. A slowed-down video from the 2019 World Series that seems to show something coming off the bat of Robinson Chirinos flamed further speculation. Many on Twitter claimed the unidentified object must have been an electronic buzzer. Answers to how this “buzzer” went from under his jersey and undershirt to his bat, or how the Astros were managing to get a read on the signs in the Nationals ballpark, were nowhere to be found.

The new allegations against the Astros raised more questions than answers. Many in the media, however, had seen enough. When discussing whether Altuve wore a wire, Max Kellerman described Altuve’s explanation as nonsense and exclaimed that the Astros, and Jose Altuve, are cheaters. Shannon Sharpe laughed at the thought of Altuve’s wife being uncomfortable with his jersey being ripped off, declared that “[Altuve] cheated” and asked how long he has been doing so. Skip Bayless noted that, on the home-run swing, Altuve “stepped up in the box” because “he knew” an off-speed pitch was coming. Here is a video of Altuve’s home runs from the 2016 season — spoiler alert, he steps up in the box a few times. Also of note, in the combined 15 minutes of discussion on the topic by Max, Shannon and Skip, not one of them mentions the fact that the MLB announced it found no evidence of the Astros using illegal electronic devices during its investigation. Apparently Altuve’s wish to keep his jersey on is a more reliable source than the 68 interviews conducted and the thousands of emails, text messages, video clips and photographs reviewed during the MLB’s investigation.

Even with the MLB’s announcement, many questions remained — why would Altuve be thinking about his jersey in the midst of such a huge moment? Part of his explanation regarded his wife’s displeasure with him going shirtless in the ballpark — did this happen in the past? Did Altuve resist then? If the allegations are true, were other players wearing buzzers? And how long had they been doing so?

On April 7, 2019, the Astros played the Oakland Athletics. The Astros won the game in the bottom of the ninth inning when Altuve drew a walk with the bases loaded. Astros players immediately corralled around Altuve in celebration. Carlos Correa and Tony Kemp wrestled Altuve away from the others and managed to rip Altuve’s jersey apart despite Altuve resisting their efforts to do so. Altuve ends up shirtless, covered in chalk, with no wires or band-aids in sight. Here is the video play-by-play. Of course we can’t tell from the video if Mrs. Altuve was unhappy with the post-game celebration, but at the very least the video validates the fact that Altuve’s jersey had previously been ripped off in a game winning moment just six months prior to the ALCS and that no buzzer was worn at the time. The way Correa goes after Altuve leads to another question — has this happened before?

On April 30, 2015, Altuve hit a walk-off single against the Seattle Mariners. Altuve’s teammates chase him down in center field. Oddly enough, Altuve can be seen shaking his finger at them waving them off, but to no avail. Full video linked here.

On July 23, 2015, Altuve hit his first career walk-off home run at home against the Boston Red Sox. After Altuve crosses home plate, Correa seems to go for his jersey, starting what would become a trend. Full video linked here.

Less than a month later, on August 16, 2015, Altuve hit a walk-off single against the Mariners. The team again chases him down in celebration and immediately goes for the jersey. Altuve can be seen resisting and, after failing to keep the jersey on, quickly pulling down his undershirt. Full video linked here.

As to the question of who else on the Astros might have used a buzzer, it would be helpful to have a situation in the 2019 postseason where an Astros player hit a walk-off home run and subsequently had his shirt ripped off. Sure enough, Game 2 of the ALCS had just that. Carlos Correa’s home run in the bottom of the eleventh inning tied the series at one and one. Shortly after crossing the plate, Correa has his jersey ripped off, showing only his skin-tight undershirt. No buzzer in sight. Full video linked here.

One might also be curious about the role Altuve played in the 2017 and 2018 sign-stealing methods employed by the Astros. A player on the Astros 2017 World Series team who wishes to remain unnamed stated that Altuve did not participate in the trash can sign-stealing method the Astros were found guilty of using in 2017 and 2018. Below is a video that details 25 minutes worth of the Astros stealing signs in the 2017 regular season. Included in the video are: Carlos Correa, Marwin Gonzales, George Springer, Yuli Gurriel, Carlos Beltran, Alex Bregman, Juan Centeno, J.D. Davis, Tyler White, Brian McCann and Evan Gattis. Not included: Jose Altuve.

Like everything else surrounding the question of whether the Astros used electronic devices to relay signs, the videos and notes above are simply further speculation. Is it completely out of the realm of possibility that Jose Altuve, one of the more modest All-Stars in the sport, wanted to prevent his teammates from ripping his jersey off? Of course not. One sports writer even expressed shortly after the game how appropriate such a reaction was coming from Altuve. Even so, it should come as no surprise that talking heads like Skip Bayless, Shannon Sharpe and Max Kellerman provided a few hot takes without any more support than a “suspicious” action by Altuve before crossing home plate. But the rest of us should aim to be more measured before we rush to judgment. Make no mistake, the Astros cheated in 2017 and in 2018, and people will continue to view their past and present actions with skepticism. They do not deserve the benefit of the doubt. However, losing the benefit of the doubt does not lend itself to a presumption of guilt — it simply does away with any presumption of innocence.

The most knowledgeable source on the topic is currently the MLB investigators who spent the past two months looking into sign-stealing methods employed by the Astros for the 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons. Their conclusion? “No evidence to substantiate [the alleged use of electronic devices].” As Tim Kurkjian said, “I have to believe Jose Altuve without solid proof.” The answer for now, and maybe forever, is that we do not know whether or not Jose Altuve, or any other Astro for that matter, illegally used electronic devices in the 2019 season. I don’t believe they did. Skip Bayless, Shannon Sharpe and Max Kellerman seem to disagree. For now, like Altuve, I am just looking forward to the 2020 season. Look at our lineup. Now look at yours. I like our odds, even without the trash can. Go ‘Stros.