Collin McHugh Shares Extended Take on Time With Astros During Cheating Scandal

Former Houston Astros starter/reliever hybrid Collin McHugh is fresh off posting a 4.70 ERA for the 2019 AL champions, but he is now free to speak about the team's sign-stealing operation now that he is a Boston Red Sox player.

McHugh acknowledged what he did was wrong, but offered insight as to why no one spoke up about it.

"I think a lot of the guys on that team, including myself, are looking back now and wishing we’d been as brave in the moment and we thought we were beforehand," McHugh said. "I hope we can move forward as a league and I hope we can move forward as a group of players and know that we’ll look at this as a learning experience because it really has to be so we can get better."

McHugh also mentioned that he felt "powerless" to stop the ongoing sign stealing, saying that he and other Astros players normalized it by assuming that other teams were doing the same things they were doing. While McHugh was a part of that tainted 2017 championship team, his candor in response to questions about his role was impressive to witness.

McHugh was caught in an awkward situation in Houston, but his contrition and acknowledgement of his team's wrongdoing has helped ease some of the vitriol directed his way. McHugh just wants to put this whole thing in the past, and the Red Sox hope that any sign stealing questions directed at McHugh stay in the past as well.