Former Houston Astros pitcher Collin McHugh says that palers were told other teams were cheating too, as a justification for Houston’s now infamous sign-stealing scheme.
McHugh, who pitched for the Stros for six seasons starting in 2014, has signed a one-year free-agent deal with the Red Sox for the coming season. He says that the situation was “really awkward,” and that players were told that the sign-stealing campaign was OK because “everyone was doing it,” according to the New York Post.
“We were made to believe it was happening to us, too. We don’t know if that was true or not,” McHugh told reporters Friday at the Sox’s spring training camp in Fort Myers, Florida.
“That’s not a justification for doing anything, just because you think they’re doing it. That’s not a justification for doing something that you know is not right,” McHugh hastened to add. “Looking back, I don’t know what we could have done as pitchers. It wasn’t really our territory. Maybe we could have gotten together and somehow tried to stop it. It was tough. It was tough watching that.”
McHugh signed for a one-year, $600,000 guarantee with bonuses that could make the contract worth up to $4.25 million. But he has had an injury scarred career, especially during that 2017 season. In fact, he is likely to sit out Opening Day this season due to a flexor injury in his pitching arm.
The 32-year-old Illinois native first hit the big leagues in 2012 with a season with the New York Mets, then less than a year with the Colorado Rockies before signing with the Astros.
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