Houston Astros: Was Justin Verlander kidding around in dubious timing?

Justin Verlander kidding around in dubious timing

When former Houston Astros pitcher Mike Fiers blew the Astrogate whistle to The Athletic last November, he spoke of “guys who are losing their jobs because they’re going in there not knowing.”

“Young guys getting hit around in the first couple of innings starting a game, and then they get sent down,” continued Fiers, who signed with the Tigers for 2018 as a free agent before moving to the Athletics for 2019. “It’s (B.S.) on that end. It’s ruining jobs for younger guys. The guys who know are more prepared. But most people don’t. That’s why I told my team. We had a lot of young guys with Detroit trying to make a name and establish themselves. I wanted to help them out and say, ‘Hey, this stuff really does go on. Just be prepared’.”

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But it isn’t just young pitchers trying to establish themselves or oft-injured veterans driven to retirement (though it’s really not possible to surmise what would have happened had Medlen faced a different opponent) who were cheated by the Astro Intelligence Agency and the Boston Red Sox’s Replay Reconnaissance Ring. If you ask Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Rich Hill about Astrogate, as someone did during their weekend fan fest, he’ll tell you it isn’t just the players who suffer:

"I think about the guys that were affected that nobody talks about. The clubhouse guys, the guys that take photos for the team, the trainers, the coaches who may not have been as fortunate as some of us in this game, so I think that’s where I really have a hard time swallowing. Put aside the players, put aside the trophy, and that’s another day for another conversation but I think when you really think about it, there was a lot of financial downfall that came about that needs to be talked about."

Those people can be seen as being cheated out of assorted bonuses you’d expect them to see when the team for whom they work nails a championship. As Larry Brown Sports writer Grey Papke says, “Those bonuses would have made a much bigger difference to these people as opposed to players who are making millions either way. When you think of it that way, it’s no wonder that a lot of teams felt like the Houston Astros got off easy as a result of what happened.”

A lot of teams, an awful lot of fans, and enough at Saturday’s BBWAA dinner hearing Justin Verlander joke about the Astros’ technological and analytical advancement that didn’t take the bread out of the mouths of their field opponents alone.

The Astros still have their defenders, and enough of those defenders still play the what about game in response. Well, what about those players whose very major league careers were impacted by the AIA stacking the decks against them going in? What about those players now realizing they might have earned trips back to the minors, if not out of baseball at last, in an unfair fight, instead of knowing the other guys really were better than them? And, what about the opposition organization staffers who may have been robbed of hard-earned championship bonuses but will never truly know for dead last certain?

More than a few of us would love to know what the Houston Astros and the Red Sox think now about things like that