Dallas Keuchel Apologized for Sign-Stealing Scandal, His Ex-Teammates Should Follow Suit

Dallas Keuchel has become the first former Houston Astros player to publicly apologize for the franchise's sign-stealing scandal. Hopefully the new Chicago White Sox pitcher will not be the last.

Keuchel won the American League Cy Young Award as a member of the Astros in 2015 and was a key part of their World Series win in 2017. So he was obviously part of the team during the heat of the sign-stealing scandal.

On Friday, Keuchel didn't go into details about his level of involvement, but he admitted the sign-stealing scheme was wrong at his new team's SoxFest fan convention. Here's what he had to say about it:

"“First and foremost I think apologies should be in order for, if not everybody on the team. It was never intended to be what it is made to be right now. I think when stuff comes out about things that happen over the course of a major-league ball season, it’s always blown up to the point of ‘Oh, my gosh, this has never happened before.’”"

The 32-year-old southpaw continued:

"“It’s just what the state of baseball was at that point in time. Was it against the rules? Yes, it was. I personally am sorry for what’s come about the whole situation. It is what it is, and we’ve got to move past that. I never thought anything would’ve come like it did. I, myself, am sorry.”"

Keuchel implied that other teams were stealing signs and that this kind of thing has always happened, but that doesn't make it right. I think most fans out there would agree that using technology to steal signs crossed a line.

While he was the first player to come out and openly admit and apologize for the scheme, he shouldn't be the last. Current Astros players should embrace apologizing. Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve opted not to apologize when given the opportunity. They should change their stance immediately.

Apologizing won't undo what happened, but it would be something.