VIDEO: Brian Cashman Praises Mike Fiers and Responds to Carlos Beltran's Role in Astros' Sign-Stealing Scandal

New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman has emerged at Spring Training, and has added to the chorus of discussion about the Houston Astros' sign-stealing operation, specifically how it prevented the Yankees from making the World Series in 2017. While he has gone on the record previously about the scandal as a whole, parroting many of the same talking points that legions of other executives have said, he did take some time to comment on the role of former Yankees player and advisor Carlos Beltran in the scandal. Cashman did call Beltran's reported major role in the sign-stealing "wrong,", but he also said he has a hard time believing he was involved to the degree of being a steamroller.

As hard as this is to accept for Cashman and a host of others across baseball, Beltran, called a "good person" and a "gentle giant" by Cashman himself, might have been up to more nefarious acts than most previously thought.

Cashman also singled out Astros whistleblower Mike Fiers, a former pitcher who tipped off reporters to the fact that this scandal was much more complex than originally indicated. He called Fiers an extremely selfless individual who did a courageous act by making this public.

Fiers' name might be getting dragged through the mud by the likes of Jessica Mendoza and others upset that he blew the whistle on his fraternity of players, but what he did helped blow the lid off of one of the biggest scandals in baseball history, and Cashman is just one of a bunch of executives grateful for what he did.