Phillies manager Joe Girardi spoke last night at the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association Banquet.

Not sure whether this clip comes from before or after his speech, but he was asked, off to the side, about the Astros’ sign stealing scandal, saying this:

Girardi:

“Sign stealing, all of this has been going on for years. It’s been going on for years. It’s our responsibility to protect them. I know we will work really hard to protect every sign we have and have different combinations and make pitchers use multiple sequencing so we can protect them. A lot of times it’s done by the players on the field and you have to be careful. I don’t think much about it except what we have to do to protect it.”

Safe answer. Of course he’s not going to come out and say, “if those cheating bastards weren’t stealing signs, maybe we would have been in the World Series.”

Girardi also spoke about the scandal before the punishments were handed down, saying this at the recent Winter meetings: