Former Astros Player Evan Gattis on Cheating Scandal: 'We Cheated Baseball'

Evan Gattis was a member of the 2017 Houston Astros team that has been accused of cheating. Current baseball players have been attacking the Astros for stealing signs during their World Series Run, and Gattis is regretful for the team's actions. He was recently on the 755 Is Real podcast talking about the scandal. He admitted the team did what they were accused of, and he offered an apology.

"I don't know how to feel yet," he said via FTW. We didn't look at our moral compass and say, 'Yeah, this is right.' It was almost like paranoia warfare or something. What we did was wrong. Don't get it twisted. It was wrong for the nature of competition — not even just baseball. Yeah, that was wrong. I will say that. … We cheated baseball. We cheated fans. Fans felt duped. I feel bad for fans because I really wish everyone was there. I wish everyone could experience what it's like to break spring training and break for the big-league club and be in a big-league clubhouse, part of a big-league team. I wish everyone knew what that was like.

Gattis continued: "But I'm not asking for sympathy or anything like that. Part of the punishment is being hated by everybody forever. I don't know what should have been done but something should have (expletive) been done. I do agree with that big time. And I do think it's good for baseball that they clean it up."

The Astros are also accused of stealing signs during the 2018 season. It led to manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow being suspended for one year, and they were then fired. The scandal also led to former player Carlos Beltran getting fired as manager of the New York Mets, and the Boston Red Sox parted ways with manager Alex Cora, who was a bench coach for the Astros in 2017.

Along with Gattis speaking on the scandal, former Astros player Ken Giles feels so guilty, he's willing to give back his World Series ring.

"I was not aware about anything," he said. "It crushed me to learn about the stuff that went on when I was there. I had no idea. ...I was blindsided by the commissioner's report. Up until then, I honestly didn't believe it."