Chris Bassitt Calls Astros “Guinea Pig” Regarding Sign-Stealing

On Friday, Oakland A’s starting pitcher Chris Bassitt joined Chris Rose on The Chris Rose Rotation, as the two discussed a multitude of baseball topics including the Houston Astros‘ cheating scandal. Bassitt was one to mention at the 2021 All-Star Game that he has since moved on from what happened in 2017, as more and more players speak out.

“I think it’s a bigger media story than player story, honestly,” Chris Bassitt told Danielle Learner of the Houston Chronicle at the ’21 All-Star Game. “It wasn’t just the Astros. So it is what it is. Obviously, I have teammates who played with them. I know how good of people those guys are. They were stuck in a bad situation. So yeah, I think it’s a massive media thing, but from a player standpoint, I think a lot of people are kinda over it.”

Bassitt stated that the Astros were not the only team “doing stuff” to advance their play in that last couple years. The hurler explained how illegal sign-stealing has been an issue league wide as well.

Oakland A’s pitcher Chris Bassitt called the Astros the “guinea pig” to clean up sign-stealing in MLB.

Many Astros’ fans have come to the defense of their favorite ball club with similar remarks, but this is one of the first times an opposing pitcher has defended Houston. More players have spoken out in defense or praise of Houston’s lineup as well, more recently with Marcus Stroman and Josh Donaldson on Twitter.

Bassitt mentioned that the reason not a lot of players and teams were speaking out at the time was because they were conducting similar methods of cheating. The right-hander also said that MLB knew about sign-stealing in baseball and elected to keep quiet about it.

For more on Bassitt on The Chris Rose Rotation: