Players across Major League Baseball continue to treat the Houston Astros like a punching bag.
New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton is the latest to land a haymaker.
The Astros have been getting pummeled since being disciplined last month by MLB for illegally stealing signs during the 2017 season, especially in wake of the team’s “apology” falling flat, and Stanton claimed Wednesday at Yankees spring training that he would’ve done even more damage during his MVP campaign had he known what pitches were coming his way.
“If I knew what was coming in ’17, I probably would have hit 80-plus home runs,” Stanton told reporters in Tampa, Fla.
Stanton, then a member of the Miami Marlins, instead finished with 59 home runs, the highest total since Barry Bonds crushed a record 73 in 2001. But if we’re to believe Stanton, MLB could have had a new single-season home run king and possibly a different World Series champion in 2017.
“They did their investigation and it was clean-cut that they cheated that year, which means it should be taken away,” Stanton told reporters, suggesting the Astros should be stripped of their 2017 World Series title. “I mean, if you cheat in another way during the season you can’t even be in the playoffs, so therefore (you) would be eliminated. So it’s pretty much the same — same difference.
“I don’t think the penalties were harsh enough player-wise. I think that, at the end of the day, it gives more incentive to do that, if you’re not going to punish the players that took part in it.”
Stanton is entering his third season with the Yankees. His first two campaigns in the Bronx have been disappointing. The four-time All-Star appeared in only 18 regular-season games and five playoff games due to injury in 2019.
