One can understand why there are a number of teams (and their fans) who still have hard feelings towards the Houston Astros stemming from the 2017 sign-stealing scandal. No one likes to feel cheated, and at the end of the day, what the Astros did was wrong, and they got punished for it. However, there is no amount of penance Houston could pay to satisfy some people, and that seemingly includes former Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen.
Jansen has put together a stellar career that will warrant real consideration for the Hall of Fame one day. Back in 2017 (the year of the scandal), Jansen put together arguably the best season of his career with a 1.32 ERA and finished fifth in the NL Cy Young voting.
However, when he appeared on one of Jomboy Media's shows, he made it clear that the only team that could hit him that year was the Astros and heavily implied that it was only because they cheated.
Kenley Jansen jokes that the only team that could have beat him in 2017 was the Astros pic.twitter.com/C97R5Y1Wrn
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 12, 2025
Kenley Jansen is not ready to let the Astros' sign stealing scandal go
Look, if any of us played in a World Series, lost a tight series, and then it came out that the winner had cheated not only during that postseason but for the whole year, we would all be salty about it. Jansen has strong feelings about it, and he is entitled. It isn't the first time Jansen has shown his displeasure and, if we are being honest, it won't be the last.
That said, we are pretty long ways removed from the scandal, and that Jansen decided to take a shot at Houston all this time later is just kind of sad. Again, you were great, and you think you should have a ring. Got it. Have anything else to add to the conversation? No? We didn't think so.
Again, this isn't a situation where the Astros "got away" with it. They were severely punished for what happened, as they should have been, and the result was a farm system that STILL hasn't recovered from the loss of draft picks. You are welcome to be mad about it, but let's stop pretending that this Houston team has to continue to bend the knee.
