Dodgers President of Baseball Ops Thinks Astros Haven't Shown Enough Remorse For Cheating

The Los Angeles Dodgers have a legitimate claim to the title of franchise most affected by the cheating scandal that has consumed the baseball world over the offseason. They lost to the Houston Astros in the 2017 World Series, and after Rob Manfred severely disciplined the Astros for cheating that season, everyone in LA is left wondering what might have been if not for sign-stealing.

There's no way to know, obviously. Manfred said as much in response to a resolution passed by the LA City Council that called for MLB to retroactively award the Dodgers the 2017 and 2018 World Series titles after the teams they lost to turned out to be cheating (although to what extent when it comes to the Red Sox has yet to be determined).

In his first public appearance since all this news broke, Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman said he doesn't think the Astros have been appropriately apologetic after they were caught red-handed. He also said they have not called him or the organization to offer an apology.

I hope he wasn't holding his breath for a personal apology. While the Dodgers were potentially robbed of a World Series title as a result of Houston's underhanded methods, there are 28 other teams who were also affected, not to mention the countless players (and pitchers especially) whose career paths may have been altered after getting lit up by the Astros. Houston would have quite a long series of calls to make if they were to give everyone a personal apology.

But Friedman probably isn't alone in believing the members of the Astros haven't exactly been remorseful in the wake of the scandal. Jim Crane held a press conference right after the penalties were imposed by the league firing the two men he believed to be responsible in AJ Hinch and Jeff Lunhow, but not a whole lot else. Lunhow himself released a statement claiming no knowledge of these events and throwing Alex Cora under the bus. Neither Alex Bregman nor Jose Altuve expressed any sort of apology or responsibility for what went down. Dallas Keuchel is the only member of that 2017 squad to acknowledge what happened and at least appear to be regretful about it.

It's not a great look for the Astros' players and staff to blow this off, but then again, it's not like the current perception of their franchise can get much lower.