Carlos Beltran Admits To "A Stain" On 2017 Astros Title

Carlos Beltran was a key veteran on the 2017 Houston Astros, playing in his 20th and final major league season. He was one of the few names "outed" in MLB's investigation into the team's sign-stealing scandal, and now he's finally coming clean.

In an interview with Michael Kay in New York, admits that the Astros' World Series win that year was "stained":

Carlos Beltran tells YES, the Astros' 2017 championship is tainted.

He conducted an interview with Michael Kay, whom he will be calling games with this season for YES. pic.twitter.com/iGU2zNESYQ
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) April 3, 2022

"Yeah, there is (a stain), because, you know what we did... Looking back now, yes, we did cross the line."

Carlos Beltran, a new YES television analyst, sat down with Michael Kay for an interview in which he talks at length (for the first time, I think) about his role in the 2017 Astros sign stealing scandal. While it airs tomorrow, the network emailed out excerpts & here are a few: pic.twitter.com/QqOTHc7BYA
— James Wagner (@ByJamesWagner) April 3, 2022

Beltran said, essentially, they figured other teams were doing things, so why not them? "We felt in our hearts that we were being more efficient and smarter than any team out there. That's how we felt... This is working for us. Why you gonna stop something that is working for you?"

And then he laid the blame on the Astros' front office. "I wish the organization would've said to us, 'Hey man, what you guys are doing, we need to stop this!' If the organization would've said something to us, we would've stopped it for sure."

Beltran was hired as the New York Mets manager for the 2020 season, but with the release of the sign-stealing report and his name being attached to it, he was let go by the Mets before he even started the role. He is now a television analyst for the YES network in New York for the Yankees.

Photo Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports