Some people rejoiced when the Houston Astros won in 2017 after the sign-stealing scandal, but others did not. Mike Trout belonged to the latter group.
Trout raged against the Astros for retaining the World Series title despite their cheating scandal. Unleashing his rant, in 2020, he said:
“I don’t agree with the punishments, the players not getting anything … It was a player-driven thing,” Mike Trout said. “Me going up to the plate knowing what was coming — it would be pretty fun up there.”
Until 2019, none of the players admitted their guilt except Mike Fiers. The Astros sign-stealing incident surfaced in 2019.
It was claimed that they had engaged in unlawful sign relaying and sign decoding throughout their championship-winning 2017 season.
Mike Trout used some harsh words for Astros
The sign-stealing revelation enraged many MLB fans and players, including Trout, who used some harsh words for the Astros:
“You don’t know what helped them or what not,” he said in an interview. “But if you know what’s coming, it’s going to definitely help them. I don’t know if you take the trophy away or take the rings away, but they should definitely do something.”
Mike Trout even said that several Astros players involved in the sign-stealing conspiracy caused him to lose respect for them. The Astros' win in the 2017 World Series and other successes were tainted due to the scandal, which shook the baseball community.
Trout is a center fielder for the Los Angeles Angels. He has been selected to ten MLB All-Star games. He has won the Silver Slugger Award nine times and has been named the American League's Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times.
He has also been selected to ten MLB All-Star games and led the American national team in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.