Jessica Mendoza is not happy that a player came forward about MLB’s sign-stealing scandal.
During Thirsday’s edition of ESPN’s “Golic and Wingo” show, the “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcaster and former softball star had some pretty strong words for former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers’ “going public” with his teammates’ elaborate cheating scheme.
“I mean I get it. If you’re — if you’re with the Oakland A’s and you’re on another team, I mean heck yeah you better be telling your teammates, ‘Hey look heads up if you hear some noises when you’re pitching this is what’s going on.
“But to go public? That didn’t sit well with me.”
“Honestly, it made me sad for the sport that this is how it all got found out,” she said. “This wasn’t something that MLB naturally investigated or even other teams complained about because they naturally heard about and then investigations happened.
“But it came from within. It was a player that was a part of it, that benefitted from it during the regular season when he was a part of that team. And that, when I first heard about it, it just — it hits you like any teammate would. It’s something that you don’t do.”
“I totally get telling your future teammates, helping them win, letting people know,” said Mendoza, “but to go public with it, to call them out, starting all of this — it’s hard to swallow.”
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Mendoza works as an MLB analyst for ESPN, but she was also hired last year as an adviser to New York Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen. That is pretty noteworthy information since new Mets manager Carlos Beltran was heavily implicated in the Astros’ sign stealing scheme, and New York has yet to announce their decision regarding Beltran going forward.
It ultimately didn’t matter because Beltran stepped down from his position on Thursday.
Mendoza isn’t the only one turned off by Fiers as former Astros player and manager Phil Garner said this week that Fiers will now be considered a “rat” around the league.
The Red Sox dumped Alex Cora due to their former manager’s involvement to involvement as a bench coach on the 2017 Astros.
Cora and the Red Sox are also being investigated by the league for sign stealing.
