Toronto Blue Jays bench coach Dave Hudgens says he regrets not doing more to stop the Houston Astros in their electronic sign-stealing scandal.
Hudgens spoke to reporters in Dunedin, Fla., on Wednesday as the Blue Jays opened their spring training camp.
Hudgens served as the Astros’ hitting coach for four years, from 2015 to 2017. He didn’t suffer any punishment by MLB and wasn’t cited in the final report that eventually resulted in A.J. Hinch’s and Jeff Luhnow’s season-long ban from baseball.
“I was asked, during the off-season, by Major League Baseball to be part of the investigation, and I cooperated with them,” Hudgens told reporters on Wednesday. “I regret, I’m sorry, that I didn’t do something more to stop that when it was actually happening. I think that something could have been done, but we didn’t. And now we’re dealing with this.”
Luhnow and Hinch were later fired, and the Astros also lost four draft picks and were fined $5 million. Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora and New York Mets manager Carlos Beltran also parted ways with their clubs due to alleged involvement in the scandal.
Hudgens said he can’t discuss the content of his off-season interactions with MLB, but he learned about the scheme “sometime during the (2017) regular season,” when he heard a loud bang from the dugout, and was informed that it was a sign for the hitter that a breaking ball was coming.
“Obviously, it’s something that’s not right,” added Hudgens. “It shouldn’t have been done, we should have nipped it in the bud early.”
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