David Ortiz does not condone how the Houston Astros cheated their way to a World Series title in 2017, but Big Papi seems equally annoyed that it was a former member of the team who blew the lid off the sign-stealing scheme.
Ortiz spoke with reporters from Boston Red Sox training camp on Thursday, and he criticized former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers for being a “snitch.” Ortiz said it doesn’t sit well with him that Fiers waited until after he collected a bonus check and won a championship ring to publicly reveal his former team was cheating.
“After you make your money, after you get your ring, you decide to talk about it?” Ortiz said. "Why didn’t you talk about it during the season when it was going on? Why didn’t you say you don’t want to be a part of it? … That’s my problem. Why didn’t anybody say anything while it was going on?”
Ortiz also called Jose Altuve arguably the best hitter in baseball, and he said he believes Carlos Correa when Correa said Altuve did not want someone banging on a trash can to tell him which pitches were coming. However, Big Papi said that does not excuse Altuve from being associated with the cheating that went on.
Fiers was not the only person who spoke with The Athletic when the original bombshell story about the Astros dropped. He was simply the only one willing to attach his name to it, which many found admirable. However, Ortiz is not the first person in the baseball community to criticize Fiers for ratting out his former teammates.
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