Maybe Click has had one foot out the door for whatever reason and Crane was just like "**** it" and approached Luhnow with hat-in-hand and a potential job offer.
The rumors of Click possibly not coming back have been out there for weeks, though, and Stearns leaving his current job was only just reported. You think Crane knew that Stearns would come available? Or maybe he was just hoping he would?
Any baseball fan knows teams have been trying to gain an advantage somehow for decades. The national media will continue to say it was just the Astros despite several former and current players saying other teams were cheating too.
Need a real player willing to ruin his reputation to expose other teams with proof. Or a player once retired needs to do it. Otherwise it’s hearsay that people can choose not to believe.
https://sports.yahoo.com/ex-mlb-cat...-sign-stealing-scheme-2018-mlb-234653785.html It’s happened, nobody cares. It’s not the “cheating” people care about, it’s the astros
Basically MLB wants it to go away. They have an interest in having as little negative publicity as possible The narrative that the Astros cheating far outpaced other teams AND the other teams stopped after Manfred sent the letter to all teams to stop is what is best for MLB as an organization. Therefore they subdue any other reports but can't do anything about the Astros even if they wanted to because there is too much proof out there. It's likely that they even support talking about the Astros cheating history to keep that narrative. I think most media members keep talking about it because fans of other teams want to keep hearing it. It's more clicks, eyes, and ears- more popularity and $$$. And for fans it's an excuse and simple hatred toward a rival. Its been over 5 years!! There are people out there who have killed people and already served their sentence and been released since it happened. Unfortunately we will need to keep hearing it as long as the Astros keep winning. When they are no longer in these playoff games people will stop caring and not need excuses any more. I'm fine with staying rent free in everyone's head.
Or maybe Stearns wants to come back and is setting himself up to be able to? Especially after Milwaukee refused to let the Mets interview him for a job last year.
There were factual problems with his story, though. For example, he said they were using massage guns on metal benches. But they didn't have metal benches that season - they had wood benches. He was also on the opposing team and was responding to accusations by the Rockies that his own team was cheating.
Not saying anything about this particular situation, but it's far from the 1st that is alleging the same thing.
https://theathletic.com/3752188/2022/11/04/mlb-free-agents-contract-team-predictions/ 1. Aaron Judge, RF | Contract prediction: 8 years, $330 million 2. Jacob deGrom, RHP | Contract prediction: 2 years, $90 million with an opt out after Year 1 3. Justin Verlander, RHP Age: 39 | HT: 6-5 WT: 235 2022 (Astros): WAR: 5.9 ERA: 1.75 IP: 175 Agent: ISE Baseball 2022 salary: $25 million Verlander is the clear favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award, and after proving he’s all the way back after Tommy John surgery in 2020, he should be able to land a three-year contract despite being 39 years old. (He has a $25 million player option, but will hit the open market since he can do much better than that after his standout season.) Verlander led the AL in wins, ERA, WHIP and hits per nine innings. He ranked in the 90th percentile in fastball spin, the 80th percentile in K% and the 94th percentile in BB%. His stuff is still dominating. Best fits: Astros, Yankees, Dodgers, Braves, Mets, Orioles Contract prediction: 3 years, $135 million 4. Carlos Correa, SS | Contract prediction: 10 years, $327 million 5. Trea Turner, SS | Contract prediction: 8 years, $264 million 6. Xander Bogaerts, SS | Contract prediction: 7 years, $196 million 7. Carlos Rodón, LHP | Contract prediction: 5 years, $144 million 8. Edwin Díaz, RHP | Contract prediction: 4 years, $65 million 9. Dansby Swanson, SS | Contract prediction: 6 years, $154 million 10. Kodai Senga, RHP | Contract prediction: 3 years, $72 million 11. Clayton Kershaw, LHP | Contract prediction: 1 year, $20 million 12. Willson Contreras, C Age: 30 | B: R T: R | HT: 6-1 WT: 224 2022 (Cubs): WAR: 3.9 OPS+: 128 Agent: Octagon 2022 salary: $9.63 million Contreras is the best free-agent catcher. He should be able to land a contract that’s between the four-year $73 million deal Yasmani Grandal signed with the White Sox in 2019 and the four-year, $82 million deal Salvador Perez signed with the Royals in 2021. Contreras batted .243/.349/.466 this season with 23 doubles, 22 home runs and 55 RBIs. He ranked in the 90th percentile in hard-hit rate. Best fits: Cardinals, Cubs, Astros, Red Sox Contract prediction: 4 years, $78 million 13. Nathan Eovaldi, RHP | Contract prediction: 4 years, $90 million 14. Chris Bassitt, RHP | Contract prediction: 4 years, $74 million 15. Jameson Taillon, RHP | Contract prediction: 4 years, $70 million 16. Brandon Nimmo, CF | Contract prediction: 5 years, $80 million 17. Andrew Benintendi, LF | Contract prediction: 5 years, $75 million 18. José Abreu, 1B | Contract prediction: 2 years, $34 million 19. Anthony Rizzo, 1B | Contract prediction: 3 years, $54 million 20. Zach Eflin, RHP | Contract prediction: 3 years, $36 million 21. Michael Conforto, RF | Contract prediction: 2 years, $34 million with an opt out after Year 1 22. Kenley Jansen, RHP | Contract prediction: 2 years, $34 million 23. Martín Pérez, LHP | Contract prediction: 2 years, $24 million 24. Tyler Anderson, LHP | Contract prediction: 2 years, $24 million 25. Josh Bell, 1B/DH | Contract prediction: 3 years, $39 million