Carlos Beltrán says he wasn't solely responsible for Astros' illegal sign-stealing operation in 2017

Carlos Beltran speaks during a news conference before a baseball game between the New York Mets and the Arizona Diamondbacks Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) (Frank Franklin II/Associated Press) As Carlos Beltrán prepares to go into the Hall of Fame this weekend, the illegal sign-stealing scheme operated by the Houston Astros team that won the 2017 World Series is a hot topic again.

>Beltrán was a veteran leader on that team that beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games for the franchise's first title, and when the Major League Baseball report on the team's sign-stealing operation came out more than two years later, he was the only player mentioned in the report.

>On a Hall of Fame Zoom call with reporters on Monday, Beltrán clarified that he was not the only player responsible for the system that involved watching a live video of the signals, then banging on a trash can to alert the Astros hitter in the box when a breaking ball was coming.

>According to the MLB report that was released in January 2020, Beltrán was among a group of players that met around June of the 2017 season and discussed ways to improve the sign-stealing operation, which was legal as long as you didn't use electronics or live video to decipher and communicate signs. The trash-can banging system was hatched in that meeting.

>"I know I was part of that organization, I know I was part of that. I know that as a team we got together to do what we did, but I've got to tell you that this was not like one player's idea. This was a team being together, from top to bottom, to do something that we felt was going to help us win," Beltrán said Monday. "And we also felt that other organizations, they had their system, and people could say whatever, but the game of baseball has been played for 100 years. How do you decipher your opposing team to take advantage? We felt that our system was better than any other system in baseball."

>Beltrán intimated that he was named in the report while his teammates were kept out of it because he already had retired and was no longer represented by the MLB Players Association.

>"I feel like when you dig deep into the case and you dig deep into who I was as a player and how I behaved as a player throughout my career, I don't know, it created some red flags on the process. It created red flags on the investigation," he said. "I've got to be honest and tell you how I feel, because sometimes it's hard for me to believe that I ended up in that position, just the only player mentioned in the report. There's no other players mentioned in the report. When I went to the interview with MLB, the first thing that they told all the players was, 'You know what, guys? We just want to know what happened. We want to know everything that happened with the Astros. We are going to give all the players immunity. So we're not  going to suspend anybody, we're not going to mention anybody.' So the fact that I'm the only player mentioned, I don't know, it's kind of weird. Sometimes it still gives me like a bad taste in my mouth, but it shows you that as players, sometimes you don't have control over what's going to happen."

Houston Astros designated hitter Carlos Beltran (15) sits in the dugout during the seventh inning of Game 1 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle) Being mentioned in the report was costly for Beltrán, because he had been named manager of the New York Mets in November. When the report came out two months later, he and the Mets agreed to part ways before he ever managed a game. Astros manager A.J. Hinch, general manager Jeff Luhnow and Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who was the Astros' bench coach in 2017, also were named in the report and were suspended from baseball for a year. Astros owner Jim Crane elected to fire both Hinch and Luhnow, while Cora returned to the Red Sox after sitting out a season.

>"Based on the report, A.J. Hinch was going to be suspended, Alex Cora was going to be suspended, Jeff Luhnow was going to be suspended and they're going to allow Carlos Beltran to manage the Mets? I mean, that's impossible," Beltrán said. "So, I felt like mentioning Carlos Beltrán in the report, that was my suspension."

>His involvement with that Astros team also likely delayed Beltrán's induction into Cooperstown. He received less than 50% of the vote in his first year on the ballot in 2023, but that percentage increased each year until he reached 84.2% of the vote in January, comfortably clearing the 75% threshold for selection.

>"Some of the people that didn't vote for me when the Astros situation happened at the beginning, maybe for the first couple of years, they didn't vote for me, but they voted for me after two years," Beltrán said. "So, the question will be what changed for them? What changed for them to change their minds to reward me with becoming a Hall of Famer? So, I guess within the game, we live in a society where we make a lot of judgments on people based on what you hear."

SubscribeThere’s more to Houston with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Carlos Beltrán says he wasn't solely responsible for Astros' illegal sign-stealing operation in 2017.