MLB: The long, winding, painful reach of the sign-stealing scandal

MLB players formerly of the Astros now playing elsewhere have to live with the regrets and the ramifications of the electronic sign-stealing scandal.

The Astrogate arm drives a hammering fist down upon the Houston Astros, but its reach isn’t limited to them alone. There are ex-2017 Astros now playing, working, or not working elsewhere. And while they won’t feel the brunt of it, they won’t exactly live without it, either.

Two of them are out of MLB jobs thanks to their roles as the Astro Intelligence Agency’s apparent masterminds: then-bench coach turned now-former Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora and then-designated hitter turned now-former New York Mets manager Carlos Beltran. Cora got to manage two full MLB seasons and won a World Series title. Beltran never got to manage even a spring training exhibition game.

But a couple of other Mets live with it. One of them is left fielder/corner infielder J.D. Davis, a rookie with the 2017 Astros. He was a little flip when asked about the sign-stealing scandal in December, almost a month after former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers blew the Astrogate whistle in the first place. Now he’s not flip but regretful. Even if he was on the margin at best as a 2017 Astro.

That was December: Davis first said he hadn’t heard from commissioner’s investigators and, by the way, he didn’t know what was afoot. “I have no idea what was going on or what’s really happening. That is MLB’s investigation,” Davis told the New York Post then. “I wasn’t aware of anything and even if there was I wish I would have known because I batted only .180 or .200 or something like that, but I really have no clue.”

Tony Adams, the fan who broke down the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal to include who got how many stolen signs banged their way slowly, discovered that the little-used Davis saw 49 pitches in 2017 and got banged for 14 of them. Equaling 28.6 percent of the pitches he saw all season.

The Astros traded the barely-a-factor Davis to the Mets after the 2018 season.

He went from nothing special as an Astro to rather valuable as a Met, with a respectable .895 OPS in 2019 plus 22 doubles and 22 home runs. He was one of the Mets’ unlikely jacks-of-all-trades in a year they rotated players around the field more often than day camp counselors rotate volleyball teams. And this is now: “I spoke a little bit prematurely,” Davis tells the Post‘s Mike Puma.

"“I spoke before or during the MLB investigation, and so I was a [2017] rookie and was going up and down the [Astros’] system and I was fighting for my life. MLB called and I cooperated with them and made my statements, and back to the December comment in the interview I spoke prematurely.”"

Davis talks a day after Astros owner Jim Crane led an embarrassing presser in which he said the electronic sign-stealing didn’t impact the game before saying he didn’t say that. Davis says, looking back to that rookie season, “of course it’s regrettable and you feel ashamed to be a part of it.” Even as marginal a part, however high the percentage of bangs on the can he got for the pitches he saw.

"“I didn’t really think much of the [AIA], going up there fresh and being part of a major league clubhouse and a major league guy,” he continued. “Maybe what they did was the norm. I had no idea. I had never been in another big-league clubhouse to compare the two. Looking back on the details of it, it’s terrible. It’s terrible for the game of baseball.”"

Davis couldn’t bring himself to use the word “cheating” on the public record, seemingly. He’s not even close to alone.