Evan Gattis on Astros Cheating: 'I Think a Lot of People Feel Duped'

Former Astros catcher Evan Gattis is keeping the Astros' sign-stealing scandal conversation going during the coronavirus pandemic.

Gattis went on The Athletic's 755 is Real podcast recently where he discussed the team's cheating saga and fans' reactions to it.

"Everybody wants to be the best player in the f------ world, man…and we cheated that, for sure, and we obviously cheated baseball and cheated fans," Gattis said. "Fans felt duped. I feel bad for fans.

"I'm not asking for sympathy or anything like that. If our punishment is being hated by everybody forever, just like, whatever. I don't know what should be done, but something had to f------ be done. I do agree with that, big-time. I do think it's good for baseball that we're cleaning it up. ...And I understand that it's not f------ good enough to say sorry. I get it."

On Jan. 13, MLB released a report detailing the Astros' illicit operation in 2017, the season they were found to use a trash-can banging scheme to alert batters of incoming pitches. The Astros went on to defeat the Dodgers in seven games in the 2017 World Series. MLB suspended manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow through the 2020 season, and team owner Jim Crane subsequently fired them. No Astros players were punished for their roles in the scandal but were instead given immunity in exchange for their testimony.

Alex Cora, the Astros' 2017 bench coach, and Carlos Beltran, the club's designated hitter that season, were named in MLB's report and eventually fired from their managerial roles with the Red Sox and Mets. This winter, Beltran was accused of forcing his Astros teammates to go along with the cheating operation.

Gattis played for the Astros from 2015-18 as a catcher, outfielder and designated hitter before retiring at the end of 2018. He shot down the theory that Beltran or Cora coerced anyone into cheating.

"Nobody made us do s---. You know what I'm saying? People saying this guy made us, that guy made us, that's not it," Gattis said. "But you have to understand the situation was powerful."

Gattis also added that he doesn't have a problem with his former Houston teammate Mike Fiers, the whistleblower who first detailed the Astros' scheme in a November 2019 report to The Athletic.

"He had something to say, so he had to f------ say it ,and then we had to get punished," Gattis said. "Because if not, then what? It'd f------ get even more out of control. I mean, it's a tough subject. Yeah, I think a lot of people feel duped, and I understand that."