Rob Manfred Claims He's Uncertain if Astros Used Buzzers to Steal Signs
By Michael Luciano
The Houston Astros have already been found guilty of using the replay room and trash cans to steal signs and tell their hitters exactly what was coming. There is also a persisting rumor that the team was using "buzzers" to alert the hitters of the impending pitch, and those flames were fanned when Jose Altuve demanded his teammates not rip his jersey off after he hit a pennant-winning home run against the New York Yankees.
While the league didn't find sufficient evidence of any sort of "buzzer" system in place, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred claims that he can't say with 100 percent certainty that there were no buzzers.
Rob Manfred to ESPN: "Can I tell you 100 percent certain that (buzzers) didn’t happen? No. You can never know that."
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) February 16, 2020
Astros manager AJ Hinch claimed in an interview that the league didn't find any evidence of buzzers being used, which is a lot different than saying they didn't use them.
That, plus the constant goalpost-moving when it comes to explaining why Altuve didn't want to expose his chest after the ALCS, has moved this theory past conspiracy status and given it some legs.
In the @MLBNetwork interview with AJ Hinch, I found it very interesting that when Hinch was asked about the buzzers, he simply said that the league investigated the Astros and didn’t find anything. At no point did he ever say they flat out didn’t exist. And his voice cracked.
— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) February 8, 2020
The Astros wearing buzzers that would vibrate whenever a specific pitch was coming sounds like the most absurd thing ever created, but they did use a vasty array of cameras, "codebreakers", "dark arts", and trash can banging to alert the hitters of breaking balls, so the buzzers would actually be less ridiculous than what they did.