Cleveland Indians pitchers past and present react to Astros cheating implications

You can hardly blame Cleveland Indians players for being among those in Major League Baseball saying “told you so” after news broke Tuesday that the Houston Astros used technology to steal signs during their run to the 2017 World Series.

Tribe pitchers, both presently and formerly on the club, have been trying to tell us about their suspicions all along. After a Game 3 loss to the Astros in the 2018 American League Division Series, starter Mike Clevinger tried to say so, without saying so.

“We were a little bit, kind of had our backs against the wall before this started when it came to the analytical side,” Clevinger said. “But everybody was out there giving it their all. They just had some really good arms to back it up.”

When details of the alleged cheating emerged in a story by Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drelich of The Athletic, Indians pitchers including Clevinger and Nick Goody, along with former Tribe starter Trevor Bauer, threw shade directly at the 2019 American League Champs on social media.

Clevinger tagged Astros MVP candidate Alex Bregman in a tweet that indicated the All-Star third baseman might have had something to hide.

Tuesday’s revelation certainly puts Clevinger’s Twitter dustup with MLB Network personality and noted Houston supporter Robert Flores in perspective now.

Goody, meanwhile, re-tweeted this post, which details a 2017 incident where White Sox reliever Danny Farquahar discovered that his pitches were being relayed to Astros catcher Evan Gattis during an at-bat.