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Fired manager Hinch: 'Fair' to ask if Astros' World Series title tainted

Former manager A.J. Hinch (L) won 100 regular season games three times and went to the World Series twice during his five-year tenure with the Houston Astros. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
Former manager A.J. Hinch (L) won 100 regular season games three times and went to the World Series twice during his five-year tenure with the Houston Astros. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Fired Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch says it's legitimate to ask if the team's 2017 World Series title is tainted after the franchise was caught in a sign-stealing scandal.

"It's a fair question," Hinch said in an interview with MLB Network. "And I think everyone's going to have to draw their own conclusions. Unfortunately, we opened that door as a group."

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The clip was released Thursday, ahead of a full broadcast of the interview Friday night..

"We're going to have to live and move forward and be better in this sport, but unfortunately no one can really answer that question," Hinch said. "I can't really pinpoint what advantages or what happened or what exactly would have happened otherwise, but we did it to ourselves."

Hinch said "we may never know" if the title has become tainted.

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The Astros fired Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow on Jan. 13, the same day they were suspended by Major League Baseball for their roles in the scandal.

The Astros also were fined $5 million and forfeited first and second round picks in the MLB Draft in 2020 and 2021.

The Astros hired Hinch in 2015. He posted a 481-329 record with the franchise. Houston won more than 100 games in every season from 2017 through 2019.

The Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games to win the 2017 World Series. The Washington Nationals beat the Astros in seven games in the 2019 World Series.

Luhnow and Hinch were suspended without pay for the 2020 season before being fired about an hour later.

An MLB investigation found that, at the start of the 2017 season, the Astros used a live game feed from the center field camera to decode and transmit opposing teams' catcher sign sequences for use when an Astros runner was on second base.

The Astros used several methods, and forms of technology, to send the information to their batters.

Information from the feed was sent from a video replay review room into the Astros' dugout before it was given to the runner on second base. The second base runner would then communicate the information regarding what the next pitch would be to the batter at the plate.

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The process was later streamlined when former Astors bench coach Alex Cora began to call the replay review room to obtain the sign information. The sign information sometimes was sent to the dugout by text message.

The Astors later installed a monitor, displaying the outfield camera feed, just outside of their dugout. Witnesses told MLB that Astros players would decode the catcher's sign for the upcoming pitch before banging on a trashcan that informed the batter what type of pitch was coming.

A November article in The Athletic sparked the MLB's investigation into the Astros' sign-stealing scandal. Former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers said the team also used the illegal operation during the 2017 postseason, a claim confirmed by the MLB investigation.

The 2018 Boston Red Sox also won the 2018 World Series with Cora serving as manager. An investigation is ongoing regarding allegations the Red Sox stealing signs during that season. Boston fired Cora in January.

Hinch's full interview airs at 6 p.m. EST Friday on MLB Network.

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